A Groupon Clone is Coming to Cebu

And, they will raffle an Apple iPad once they reached 2,011 members by January 17, 2011.

"We're kicking off an exciting 2011 with our Grand Buyanihan Cebu Launch!


We're automatically raffling off a brand new Apple iPad WiFi 16GB once


we reach 2,011 members on or before January 17, 2011!

DETAILS:
• Contest runs from December 10, 2010 - January 17, 2011 and is open to
  
  all residents of Cebu (Region VII) ages 18 years old and above.
• A minimum number of 2,011 (two thousand and eleven) member sign-ups is required for
  
  Buyanihan to automatically raffle of the Brand New Apple iPad 16gb WiFi as prize.
• Raffle date will be on January 17, 2011 and the winner will be announced on January 18, 2011."

via buyanihan.com

As I mentioned in one of my tweets before, I'm not really a big fan of the groupon concept. As a consumer, I cannot help but feel that it's just another way of 'extorting' money from me. It's just another way of luring me to empty my pockets. Yes, I may save from the big discounts but they're not something I cannot live without. It does not mean that I will not purchase deals from them, but I wish they can offer products that are really valuable to the general population of the Philippines -- like bugas, tuition fees, medicines, healthcare services, or how about training programs.

But I cannot argue that this kind of business provides a new way (maybe affordable) of marketing for the local businesses. And, if this groupon clones businesses, like Buyanihan, will be a hit (or I think they're a hit already), they can certainly provide employments and a new breed of 'jobs' to the Filipinos.

Either way, Kudos to the Buyanihan team for pulling it off in just months since they launched. Welcome to Cebu! =)

Following pics and text lifted from Buyanihan's blog post.

The group picture taken in mid July shows us in peak condition, despite the many sleepless nights – two months – we spent perfecting the payments options, the front and back-office operations and speaking to countless of commercial giants who can be relied on to offer consumers the best deals at less prices. Three chaps on the group pic are no longer with us.  They’ve been replaced by four fair young ladies, one of them is in the photo below.

To be more specific, it was Faith, our Koala bear, who singlehandedly put up the website in two months, what with her knowledge of html tags and codes (not Morse), generators (not the diesel-powered ones), encrypters, payments integration, dev server and other complex functions that make sense only to developers. What-the-heck! 

Oh and yes Kay, the lanky web designer, who created 10 logo studies and five webpage designs. Her English is superb, she can explain the rationale behind her proposals. They call her Ms Magnifique. I secretly call her Ms Beanstalk. 

We’re a 20-strong group made up of  business development officers, web developers and designers, digital media and SEO specialists, back-office and customer support professionals, writers. 

We’re all committed to making Buyanihan a top 500 company in the next three years. To make every 94 million Filipinos experience the Philippines in many fun ways.
Want to know what Jonapot, Kaye and Faith look like? They’re in the group photo.
The founder?  He prefers to remain in the background.

via buyanihan.com