ORLANDO, Fla. – A new website service aims to be Orlando's own version of Groupon, Yelp and the Yellow Pages, all rolled into one.
Orlando.com announced the launch of its new social and local business recommendation service on April 1.
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"Just like with Groupon or a Living Social, as a business you can provide discounted offers direct to consumers," said Orlando.com spokesperson Amanda Metsdagh. "The difference with Orlando.com is that there is no revenue sharing (typically they require that you provide a 50 percent off or better deal and then they take a portion of the revenue). Instead Orlando.com charges a flat introductory rate of 99 cents per day that the deal or offer is live and the whole process is managed through the site."
Orlando.com CEO Mahesh Chaddah, who co-founded the company, stressed the importance of visible search results for local businesses.
"Since more than 70 percent of searches are for local business services and products, and 59 percent of consumers use Google or Bing every month to locate a business, we'd say this focus on local search results is a win-win to connect consumers with businesses," Chaddah added.
Mestdagh said the website, which also focuses on hotel deals and theme park tickets, is doing well. It had $4 million in gross revenue on tourism e-commerce from roughly 8,500 tourism product bookings last month.