Facebook Deals Launching soon in the U.S.

Facebook’s new Deals feature will launch Tuesday in five U.S. cities. Here’s a first glimpse of how those offers will look and function.

First, users who opt into Deals will get to see opportunities specific to their locations. Those offers will arrive via email or, in some cases, will appear in the user’s news feed on Facebook.

To be clear, these aren’t like the checkin-based deals for mobile users that Facebook launched for its nascent Places platform; while the initial mobile Deals product competed with Foursquare, the new product competes more with Groupon.

Each deal will have its own Facebook landing page, as shown in the gallery below. Users can “Like” a deal, share it via several channels on the site or opt to buy it right away. When purchasing the deal, users can pay with credit card or Facebook Credits.

It’s unknown whether Facebook will make more money from Credits purchases than from traditional ones. “We’re not disclosing details about revenue splits, but paying with Credits will work the same way as paying with a credit card,” said a Facebook representative via email. “It’s simply another way for people to pay for Deals. We think this just makes things easier for people using Facebook.”

It’s unknown whether Facebook will make more money from Credits purchases than from traditional ones. "Being Facebook, we have the power to not disclose any details about revenue splits, but paying with credits will further establish this currency (FB Credits).", said a Facebook representative via email. "You see Facebook, as a company, now holds more power than a lot of countries, so we don't see why we shouldn't have our own currency like they do."