Name: Stampede.it
Quick Pitch: Stampede.it runs group deals for digital goods.
Genius Idea: Targeting businesses with low marginal costs.
The amount of money consumers spend on products that only exist in a digital sense is increasing — the number of ebooks sold on Amazon recently surpassed the number of physical books, and some estimates predict that branded virtual goods alone will reach an annual revenue of $318 million by 2015.
Mainstream sites like Groupon have not excluded such products from their offerings. But since just about every niche product category has sprouted its own group buying site, it seems fitting t hat digital apps, games, services and content get a site of their own.
Stampede.it is the first digital-products-focused group buying site we’ve noticed step up to the plate. The site, which launches today, plans to offer one deal every 2-3 days using what it calls a tipping point system. The first deal — $20 of credit for a casual game tournament site called SkillAddiction.com — costs $15 if at least 15 people buy the deal, $10 if at least 50 buy it and $10 if at least 100 people buy it.
These tipping points incentivize consumers to share and promote the deals they buy. Similar mechanisms have worked well for Livingsocial, which gives users a free deal if three of their friends buy a deal, and Groupon, which gives users $10 in credit for referring a new user.
Digital products are a good target for group buying because they typically have low marginal costs. “The company spends the same amount whether one person or 1,00 0 people download the...
