WhaleSharkMedia's $40m VoucherCodes.co.uk Deal Could Outsmart Groupon in Europe Says DiscountVouchers.co.uk Founder Doug Scott

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Aug 19, 2011, 01:20 ET

LONDON, August 19, 2011 /PRNewswire/ --

The recent acquisition of VoucherCodes.co.uk by WhaleSharkMedia could be an astute move by the US venture capital group to build a powerful rival to Groupon in Europe, according to Doug Scott, founder of DiscountVouchers.co.uk

Doug commented: "Voucher sites have their main value in the email subscriber database and clearly, with four million subscribers, VoucherCodes.co.uk is a valuable asset for anyone wanting to gain a foothold in the UK market. If WhaleSharkMedia can buy up a number of smaller voucher sites across Europe it will be able to build a subscriber base to rival Groupon at an economical price.

"Groupon is valued at $15 billion and has 115 million email subscribes, hence valuing each subscriber at around $130. VoucherCodes.co.uk with its four million subscribers was bought for $40 million, which would suggest a value of $10 per subscriber. Added to this, VoucherCodes.co.uk founder, Duncan Jennings, at just 31, is one of the brightest stars in the online world. He has both the business acumen and the technical savvy to make an ideal European CEO. If, as I suspect, the deal was based mainly on shares, then you have a partner with an investment in the future of the parent company, which maintains focus and loyalty for the future.

"WhaleSharkMedia has been on a spending spree in the States and now in Europe with VoucherCodes.co.uk and Germany's Gutschein-Codes.de, backed in part by cash from Google Ventures. Once they have mopped up a few more players and built the database up they just need to integrate the back office and they will have access to the spending habits of half the continent at their fingertips, which is a nice position to be in.

"The main lesson that sites like ourselves and others can learn from this is that it's all about the subscriber base. Paid search is fine for getting started but it eats up the profits. Organic search is fickle and can disappear overnight if you are not careful. Millions of subscribers who love you because you save them money are more likely to stick around and be of value to a venture capital firm." Scott concluded.

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SOURCE DiscountVouchers.co.uk