Groupon - not the only source for daily coupons in Southeast Asia

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More group coupon sites = more discounts. The creators of Singapore's most popular online dining site and mobile app HungryGoWhere want to provide savvy diners with alternative options in a Groupon dominated world.

Just one day after the launch of HungryGoWhere's group coupon platform HungryDeals, Groupon announced on December 1 that it will soon be available in the region as well.

If you haven't already heard, Groupon sells coupons applicable toward heavy discounts on local products and services. The catch - coupons are only redeemable once a preset minimum number are purchased, thus providing an incentive for people to encourage their friends and family members to participate.

HungryDeals, the obvious underdog, offers basically the same service, but with a twist. Users will be able to vote for deals and discounts that they like, which will allow the site to repeat popular offers.

One major difference is that HungryDeals only offers discounts on dining and food, while Groupon, which will operate through an existing local coupon site Beeconomic.com, sells coupons for a wide range of things, like gym memberships and salon services.

On launch day, HungryDeals boasted only one coupon and 742 Facebook fans. Beeconomic has offered one coupon per day since its launch in May 2010, which it claims provides 50 to 90 percent off market prices, and has 6,764 Facebook fans.

Launched in 2007, HungryGoWhere's dining database contains information for more than 6,000 restaurants and 40,000 reviews in Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong, Sydney and Melbourne.

Groupon was launched in in 2008 and is available in 300 locales in nearly 40 cities. It claims to have sold more than 18 million Groupons and saved people $786.9 million. It will soon launch local sites in Taiwan and Hong Kong through Hong Kong's uBuyiBuy.com, Taiwan's Atlaspost.com. As of December 1, all local sites were still operating under their original Web addresses.

HungryDeals Web site:  http://hungrydeals.hungrygowhere.com/

Beeconomic Web site:  www.beeconomic.com