Groupon Relaunches LivingSocial as an Agent-First Experience Marketplace
The preview uses existing eligible Groupon offers, with nothing new for operators to build or change in how they work with Groupon.
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Rhea-AI Summary
Groupon (NASDAQ: GRPN) has relaunched LivingSocial as a marketplace designed for personal AI agents, with its public preview now live. The preview includes more than 50,000 local experiences across the United States, starting with eligible Groupon offers from independent operators and larger brands.
Agents can search and compare offers, prepare a cart and share a checkout link. The buyer reviews the total and pays; agents can retrieve redemption codes after payment. Groupon's customer support and refund policy apply. Purchases do not currently reserve a date or time. Groupon says time-slot offers are coming soon, with agent payment and direct business listings planned.
LivingSocial also serves as Groupon's testing ground for commerce conducted through AI agents, extending its Project Foundry effort to become an AI-native company.
News Explained
Groupon’s LivingSocial marketplace is in public preview, starting with existing eligible Groupon offers; participating operators need no new build and make no changes to how they already work with Groupon.
Key Figures
- Local experiences
- More than 50,000 local experiences
- Across the United States; LivingSocial public preview
Key Terms
api key technical
forward-looking statements regulatory
form 10-k regulatory
AI-generated analysis. How Rhea-AI works. Not financial advice.
LivingSocial is Groupon's lab for agentic commerce, helping experience operators prepare their businesses for the rise of personal AI agents
Chicago, Illinois--(Newsfile Corp. - October 15, 2026) - Groupon, Inc. (NASDAQ: GRPN) today announced the relaunch of LivingSocial, an agent-first experience marketplace built for agents by agents and open to them by design. LivingSocial's mission is to get people offline, and its public preview is live at https://agent.livingsocial.com/ with more than 50,000 local experiences across the United States.
Nearly two decades ago, Groupon was founded to help experience operators reach customers as eyeballs moved from print and radio to the internet. Today, Groupon believes we are at a similar turning point, as agentic commerce rewires the internet around personal AI agents that act on people's behalf and make buying more convenient.
"We believe agents will become the dominant pathway by which people discover, compare and buy local experiences," said Dusan Senkypl, Chief Executive Officer of Groupon. "Experience operators need to be found all over again as people hand more of their planning to agents. We are building LivingSocial to connect the agent economy with experience operators, starting with those who already sell through Groupon."
Building for Experience Operators
Experience operators, from local activities, tours and attractions to spas, salons, and home and auto services, should be able to focus on what they do best, the in-person experience. Groupon's number one priority this year has been Project Foundry, its effort to become an AI-native company and close the diffusion gap between what AI can do and how it is deployed in everyday business. With LivingSocial, Groupon is turning that effort outward to help experience operators navigate a fast-changing AI landscape and be ready when their next customer arrives through an agent.
Selected quotes from LivingSocial launch partners
"Edge Immersive Observation Deck has had a great experience working with Groupon to welcome guests from around the world 100 stories above NYC. We are excited to extend our partnership through LivingSocial and extend our reach through their fantastic agent network." - Haley Ward, Vice President of Sales, Hudson Yards Experiences (Edge Immersive Observation Deck)
"Go City and Groupon share a vision for the future of how people discover and book experiences. We're excited to be a launch partner for the new LivingSocial and to help shape a more intelligent, AI-powered way for travelers to discover the best things to do. This is an exciting opportunity to connect more customers with Go City experiences while building on our longstanding partnership with Groupon." - Judy Gauthier, Chief Commercial Officer, Go City
"It's more important than ever tour operators and attractions understand how to position ourselves and our distribution strategies for the AI transformation. I am very impressed by Groupon's LivingSocial initiative in particular. They clearly understand the fundamental differences in a marketplace built for human search and comparison, and what a platform built for agents acting for humans needs. We are still in the very early days of how AI will transform travel discovery and booking behavior so it is critical the big industry players are testing, learning and adapting as quickly as possible. Thankful for Groupon in getting ahead of the curve." - Alexi Tabrizi, Executive Vice President, Distribution & Revenue Growth, Big Bus Tours
Built Agent-First
In an agent-first marketplace, the agent is the customer, helping its owner and their family plan how they spend time offline. Just as every business today needs a website, every experience operator will need to work well with agents, which means being:
- Discoverable, so agents can find the operator and its offers
- Clear, so agents understand exactly what an offer includes and what is still unknown
- Bookable, so agents can act on the person's choice
- Trusted, so the price and terms hold through checkout
- Supported, so help is there after the purchase
The public preview is our first step toward building this agent-first experience. It starts with existing eligible Groupon offers from independent operators and larger brands, with nothing new for operators to build and no change to how they work with Groupon.
An agent opens a shopping session in one call, without an account or API key, then searches and compares offers, prepares a cart and shares a link. The person reviews the total and pays on a trusted checkout. Once payment is confirmed and redemption codes are issued, the agent can retrieve them for the person, and Groupon's customer support and refund policy apply.
Anyone can try LivingSocial's agent-first experience by pointing their AI agent of choice to agent.livingsocial.com. A purchase does not reserve a date or time today; time-slot offers are coming soon, and agent payment and direct business listings are planned.
For the latest on what LivingSocial is shipping, visit https://agent.livingsocial.com/status or follow @LivingSocial on X (https://x.com/LivingSocial).
About Groupon
Groupon (NASDAQ: GRPN) (www.groupon.com) is an experience marketplace whose mission is to get people offline through quality local experiences at great value. To find out more about Groupon, please visit press.groupon.com.
About LivingSocial
LivingSocial is Groupon's agent-first experience marketplace and its lab for agentic commerce. It makes experience operators' offers easy for personal AI agents to find, understand and recommend, and is in public preview at https://agent.livingsocial.com/.
Note on Forward-Looking Statements
The statements contained in this release that refer to plans and expectations for the future are forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. The words “may,” “will,” “should,” “could,” “expect,” “anticipate,” “believe,” “estimate,” “intend,” “plan,” “continue” and other similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied, including the risk that LivingSocial, which is in public preview, does not operate or develop as described, is modified or is discontinued; the risk that offer availability, shopping sessions, the checkout handoff, redemption codes, bookable offers with time slots marked coming soon, planned agent payment, planned direct business listings, or partner participation develop differently than expected; the risk that third-party AI platforms limit or change how their agents connect to outside services; the risk that adoption by agents, agent platforms, consumers or experience operators differs from expectations; and the risk that our public statements regarding our AI strategy and deployment of AI agents are not adequately substantiated or are later viewed as inconsistent with our actual capabilities or results. Such risks and uncertainties include those discussed in Part I, Item 1A. Risk Factors of our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2025 and Part II, Item 1A. Risk Factors in our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2026, and our other filings with the SEC. We undertake no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statements for any reason after the date of this release to conform these statements to actual results or to future events or circumstances. Given these risks and uncertainties, readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements.
Contacts
Media and partnerships: hello@livingsocial.com
Investor Relations: ir@groupon.com
SOURCE Groupon
To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/319161
FAQ
AI-generated questions and answers. How Rhea-AI works. Not financial advice.
What is Groupon's relaunched LivingSocial marketplace?
LivingSocial is Groupon's marketplace designed for personal AI agents, now in public preview with more than 50,000 local experiences across the United States. Agents can find and compare offers and prepare a cart, while the person reviews the total and completes payment.
Can Groupon's LivingSocial agents reserve a time or pay for purchases?
LivingSocial purchases do not currently reserve a date or time, and the person completes payment through a checkout link. Groupon says time-slot offers are coming soon and agent payment is planned. After payment is confirmed and redemption codes are issued, an agent can retrieve those codes for the buyer.