As most of you are aware Jabbar has recently launched their much anticipated group purchasing website, Cobone with Paul Kenny as the CEO. I recently got in touch with the Cobone team to find out how they are planning to tackle the region especially with competition from GoNoabit. So I decided to send them some questions to get a better idea of how they felt about the progress the site has made so far and what plans they have for the future. Below are my questions and answers from Cobone’s CEO Paul Kenny.
What will be the next locations Cobone will launch in? And can you tell us a bit about the activity on the site?
Cobone.com has already established itself as the best daily deals site in the UAE with its recent e-commerce record. Our recent deal on Cobone.com sold at some points one deal every 2 seconds with a total number of sales in 15 hours of almost 1600 for a 90% of Vapiano meal deal.??We plan on bringing the best deals to every city in the Middle East and North Africa. To date we have launched in 3 cities, Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Sharjah. Over the coming months we will be in many more cities across the region. What is most exciting about Cobone is that we have people from every city already signing up in their thousands as we are now having over 1,000 registrations per day.
Are there are any plans for adding features and services in the future?
Cobone.com has already invested heavily in it’s technology with its safe and secure payment options. Partnering with Jabbar Cobone.com has extensive plans to offer more innovative payment methods for users to pay for Cobone.com’s great deals. With over 10 years in the region as part of Jabbar and our sister sites that have launched successfully in India, Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Germany, Switzerland, Australia and New Zealand Cobone has a wealth of local and international experience that will bring the best deals to users.
How does Cobone plan on dealing with the competition from GoNabit and why should users get deals from Cobone vs. GoNabit?
Competition is great as Cobone will continue to develop the ecommerce industry in the region. What Cobone offers is the best deals. Every day we feature the top restaurants, spas and experiences at the biggest discounts in your city. No other ecommerce model has ever sold a coupon every 2 seconds in the region and Cobone will continue to break records as it launches more super deals. Cobone was the first to offer a discount of 90% off and will continue to bring the most talked about deals.
I find this "PR" article quite amusing – i recently ate at Vapiano in Media City and asked them how the Cobone daily deal went – the manager confirmed they had around 450 vouchers used which shocked me. From the "1600" figure they said they sold – are you telling me 70% of people forgot to redeem their vouchers…? Or that the new American Groupon wanabe is trying its hardest to raise some eyebrows in this region – at 90% or AED 10 did they actually make any money or was it just a poor attempt at a cheap marketing campaign? – Are the "1600" buyers of meals at AED 10 really going to be loyal repeat customers?!