NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwired - Feb 11, 2014) - LiveDeal (NASDAQ: LIVE) doesn't do vouchers. And, it's a good thing because the shopping public is moving away from vouchers and more toward something they'll use right now. LiveDeal's "instant deal" platform, www.livedeal.com, is just what today's consumers are demanding.

When LiveDeal launched its platform in late 2013 in the dining industry, the concept was to introduce both merchants and consumers when each needed the other the most, and having shoppers purchase vouchers to use later was not going to meet that end.

This is likely what accounts for the platform's early success in San Diego, Los Angeles and San Francisco, and it's the direction the industry is heading. While other online deal sites had to migrate away from their initial model that found consumers buying vouchers for products or service that they often never ended up redeeming, LiveDeal's model caters to diners who are hungry and restaurant owners who are trying to drive traffic.

This instant satisfaction is more in line with what benefits merchants themselves and obviously the concept is an advantage to consumers who are ready to eat and save money now. There are likely mountains of prepaid and unused vouchers for wine tours, weight loss strategies, cooking classes, etc. strewn throughout the country, and these unused vouchers could very well be why many have stopped using online deal sites that strictly use this concept.

Google Offers has moved away from the prepaid voucher model altogether, and while Groupon does still offer prepaid deals, it has added other options to its model as well. This shift in mid-stream isn't something LiveDeal has to worry about because the company's platform allows merchants to control the deals they offer, and it allows consumers to find those deals in real-time and then interact directly and immediately with those restaurants.

http://www.stockwatch.com/News/Item.aspx?bid=...p;region=U