He said that the only thing that has changed is social networks. “Something happened with Facebook and it allowed the spread of seamless viral – the ability of collaboration with known people that can be spread in a viral way, for a product or experience would, in my opinion, the one game that changed it.”He said the business was also very data-driven and the real end game was understanding at a very granular level consumer buying patterns at a local level.

“It’s not about finding the deal in Singapore but finding the deal in the CBD or the East Coast district.”If you marry that with the location-based social network, foursquare, or Facebook, then Ram said, the combination could be powerful.

“There are huge opportunities for travel suppliers to aggregate group buying of inventory and experiences and for sure, there will be a vertical travel specialist that will emerge. Travel is a huge category and it’s so fragmented.”

In India, he said makemytrip had already signed an agreement with Snap Deal, the market leader in group buying site businesses in the country with almost 75% market share. It claims to be adding a new subscriber every eight seconds.

The concern is with so many sites offering coupons, could this lead to deal fatigue among customers, Ram asked?