Entertainment
June 22, 2006 7:31 PM

With Zixxo coupons, who needs the Sunday paper?

By
Rafe Needleman
Topics
Web 2.0

Never pay retail. Why should you? Nearly every good and service can be had at some discount, if you have the right coupon. The coupon business itself, in fact, is huge -- you can see that just by looking at your local Sunday newspaper.

But newspaper circulation is declining. So where are tomorrow's consumers going to get their coupons, and how are businesses going to reach them?

Startup Zixxo is building a new coupon marketplace. The overall concept is simple: Businesses go online and post their offers and coupons. Then users go online and find offers they want. They print the coupons (or load them on to their cell phones, perhaps), and take them out shopping. Zixxo will charge the businesses for delivering the coupons (right now, the service is free).

Unlike Cellfire, which is oriented around coupons on cell phones, Zixxo isn't pushing the technology curve too hard. It's really focused on paper coupons, which you don't have to train people to use. And unlike Zimini, it doesn't require a software download or that you enter in any information. But there are several straightforward coupon sites, like CoolSavings, CouponSurfer, and many others. Zixxo is different from these sites in that its database is open, which makes mashups as possible. It's also more small-business-friendly that most other coupon sites: there's a self-service tool businesses can use to put coupons into the system.

With a solid database of coupons, good mashups should come: It would make sense for the coupon database to surface on travel sites, for example. The site is new, though, and the database so far is a little sparse. And that is the biggest challenge for this company: Getting the offers from businesses, not just the same national coupons from the big box and fast food outlets that are already on the other systems.


  • Rafe reviews mobile apps and products for fun, and picks startups apart when he gets bored. He has evaluated thousands of new companies, most of which have since gone out of business. Feeling lucky? Send pitches to rafe@cnet.com. And watch Rafe's tech issues podcast, Reporters' Roundtable, every Friday.

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