Facebook Deals closes, but Check-In Deals remain

Facebook Deals closes, but Check-In Deals remain
Business as usual for UK users

Facebook has announced that it is leaving its Facebook Deals product behind after a four-month testing period.

Although the product never made it over to our fair shores, it was hyped up to be one of Groupon's biggest competitors by offering its 750 million active users daily group deals.

"After testing Deals for four months, we've decided to end our Deals product in the coming weeks," says Facebook's statement, sent to TechRadar.

All part of the plan

"We think there is a lot of power in a social approach to driving people into local businesses. We remain committed to building products to help local businesses connect with people, like Ads, Pages, Sponsored Stories, and Check-in Deals.

"We've learned a lot from our test and we'll continue to evaluate how to best serve local businesses."

Although the official Deals product is over, Facebook will still be offering Check-In Deals, through which businesses can offer vouchers and offers to users who check in to Facebook from their premises.

The demise of Facebook Deals comes just days after the social network put the kibosh on Facebook Places, a FourSquare-alike service that pinpointed users locations and shared it with their friends.

Is the social networking site having a clear out to make space for exciting new services like the music-focused Facebook Vibes? With F8 set for 22 September, it shouldn't be long until we find out what's next for the big white F.

News Editor (UK)

Former UK News Editor for TechRadar, it was a perpetual challenge among the TechRadar staff to send Kate (Twitter, Google+) a link to something interesting on the internet that she hasn't already seen. As TechRadar's News Editor (UK), she was constantly on the hunt for top news and intriguing stories to feed your gadget lust. Kate now enjoys life as a renowned music critic – her words can be found in the i Paper, Guardian, GQ, Metro, Evening Standard and Time Out, and she's also the author of 'Amy Winehouse', a biography of the soul star.