8coupons

Type	Private
Founded	2007
Headquarters	New York City, United States
Key people	Cofounders Landy Ung and Wan Hsi Yuan
Industry	Mobile coupons
Website	www.8coupons.com

8coupons is a New York-based digital coupon and sale aggregator that distributes mobile coupons and deal updates to consumers through their cell phone.^{[1][2][3][4][5][6]}

A majority of their coupons are Manhattan-based, but the company has been expanding to other major US cities such as San Francisco, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., and Boston in 2009.^[1][2][5][7]

8coupon’s promotions, which are redeemed at the merchant using your cell-phone, are considered substantially more “cool” and appealing to younger generations ages 18-35 in comparison to traditional paper coupons.^[4][5][8][9]

The company is themed with the number eight. 8coupons celebrates their anniversary on the 8th day of the 8th month, they have a list of the top eight deals each week, and their “OCHO LOCO” deals are all themed with the number eight, such as 88 cent whiskey drinks or eight-cent falafels.^[7][10][11]

Contents 1 History 2 Items & Services 3 Competitors 4 References

[edit] History

8coupons was founded by Landy Ung, 29, and her boyfriend Wan Hsi Yuan in August 2007.^{[3][7][12][13]}

The company was founded with $30,000 from Landy Ung’s mom’s fried chicken restaurant and relied on word of mouth to generate interest in the website.^[14] In 2007 and 2008, the company was run from the couple’s 500-square-foot studio apartment.^[14] Wan was a programmer with a full-time day job and the couple often worked on the website until three in the morning.^[14]

Within a year of the website’s August 2007 launch, it had 60,000 unique visitors a month and by late 2008 their traffic was growing 50-100 percent a month.^[7] By that time, the founders had quit their full-time jobs to work on 8coupons.com, which charges a monthly fee of $265 to merchants who use the service to promote special offers.^[7]

By January, 2009, 8coupons.com’s traffic was growing 25 percent a week and as of late 2009, the company had 415,000 unique visitors a month.^[5][15]

[edit] Items & Services

8coupons is in the sole business of developing, hosting, and promoting the website 8coupons.com. Users logon to view deals/coupons and can opt in to receive coupon alerts via text message from merchants or categories they select or based on deals near their current location.^[4][9][16] Coupons are communicated to users based on their preferences set on the website and are redeemable at the merchant by showing them the coupon message on the phone.^[9] They also have a weekly list of the top eight coupons.^[6]

Coupons include local restaurants, retail, entertainment, and beauty & spa among others.^{[1][2][3][6][12]}

[edit] Competitors

Cellfire is the biggest player in the mobile coupons space. Comparatively, Cellfire is more focused on national brands, and specifically supermarkets, while 8coupons offers a hyper local approach.^[6]

[edit] References