Free tools Windows power users keep installed
One-click scans. No signup required.
On January 19, 2011, LivingSocial offered a $20 Amazon.com gift card for $10. The limited-time promotion sold roughly 1.3 million to 1.4 million vouchers, making it one of the biggest daily-deal events of its era. The headline phrase “another deal” is less certain: the documented promotion and Amazon’s wider relationship with LivingSocial are clear, but the available accounts do not establish exactly which earlier offer that word refers to.
What LivingSocial offered
Customers paid $10 for a $20 Amazon.com gift card, an effective 50% discount on the card’s face value. LivingSocial distributed the promotion; the Los Angeles Times reported that the cards were sold by LivingSocial rather than directly through Amazon’s usual retail storefront. The promotion was a national online-retail offer, not a typical local restaurant or service voucher. The Los Angeles Times’ January 19, 2011 account describes the sale and its departure from LivingSocial’s usual offerings.
| # | Preview | Product | Price | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
|
Amazon eGift Card - Amazon Logo | $50.00 | Buy on Amazon |
| 2 |
|
Amazon eGift Card - Happy Birthday | $50.00 | Buy on Amazon |
| 3 |
|
Amazon eGift Card - Birthday Wishes | $50.00 | Buy on Amazon |
| 4 |
|
Amazon Physical Gift Card in a Gift Box - Better than Gold - Black | $50.00 | Buy on Amazon |
| 5 |
|
Amazon Physical Gift Card in a Mini Envelope - Candlelight Celebration | $50.00 | Buy on Amazon |
Contemporary coverage characterized it as a one-day flash sale. ClickZ reported that it began at about 5 a.m. and ended around 8 a.m. Eastern Time the following day; the offer therefore ran for roughly 27 hours by those clock times, while other reports described it more generally as a roughly 20-hour or one-day promotion. The exact duration varies by account, so the safest description is a limited-time sale that ended the next morning. ClickZ’s report gives the approximate start and end times.
How large was the promotion?
Reports used different totals and sometimes blurred the amount customers paid with the value printed on the cards. Those measures are not interchangeable: a customer paid $10 for a card worth $20.
#1 Best Overall
- Amazon.com Gift Cards never expire and carry no fees.
- Multiple gift card designs and denominations to choose from.
- Redeemable towards millions of items store-wide at Amazon.com or certain affiliated websites.
- Available for immediate delivery. Gift cards sent by email can be scheduled up to a year in advance.
- No returns and no refunds on Gift Cards.
| Measure | Reported or calculated figure | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Price per voucher | $10 paid for $20 face value | A $10 discount, or 50% off the card’s stated value. |
| Vouchers sold | 1,301,296 (ClickZ); 1,378,938 (Fortune) | Contemporary reports differed on the final count. ClickZ and Fortune reported these respective totals. |
| Customer payments | About $13 million to $13.8 million, calculated from the reported voucher counts at $10 each | A mathematical estimate of gross customer spending, not a verified profit or net revenue figure. |
| Gift-card face value | About $26 million to $27.6 million, calculated from the reported voucher counts at $20 each | The total value represented by the cards if the reported counts are multiplied by $20; it is not the amount customers paid. |
| Early sales pace | More than $2 million in coupon sales in the first two hours | TechCrunch’s early report, published while the promotion was underway. |
TechCrunch reported that the deal passed one million cards and described $20 million in card value at that milestone. The reported totals show why “$13 million in sales” should not be read as $13 million in Amazon gift-card value—or as either company’s profit. TechCrunch’s milestone report explains the face-value measure.
Why Amazon’s involvement mattered
Amazon had announced a $175 million investment in LivingSocial on December 2, 2010, only weeks before the gift-card sale. Amazon’s announcement said the investment would support LivingSocial’s international expansion and continued growth. That timing made the promotion more than an ordinary merchant placement: Amazon was both the brand whose gift cards were being promoted and a major investor in the company distributing them. Amazon’s announcement of the investment provides the stated amount and rationale.
Rank #2
- Amazon.com Gift Cards never expire and carry no fees.
- Multiple gift card designs and denominations to choose from.
- Redeemable towards millions of items store-wide at Amazon.com or certain affiliated websites.
- Available for immediate delivery. Gift cards sent by email can be scheduled up to a year in advance.
- No returns and no refunds on Gift Cards.
The two transactions should still be kept distinct. The investment was a financing relationship; the January promotion was a consumer offer. The available reporting does not establish the contract’s full economics, so it does not show how the two companies divided proceeds, discount costs, or other risks.
Who paid for the discount?
The public accounts do not establish who ultimately bore the full $10-per-card discount. ClickZ said LivingSocial appeared to have purchased or arranged the vouchers through Amazon and noted that the offer terms said Amazon.com was not a sponsor. That reported disclaimer is not enough to determine how the companies handled the commercial arrangements between themselves.
Rank #3
- Amazon.com Gift Cards never expire and carry no fees.
- Multiple gift card designs and denominations to choose from.
- Redeemable towards millions of items store-wide at Amazon.com or certain affiliated websites.
- Available for immediate delivery. Gift cards sent by email can be scheduled up to a year in advance.
- No returns and no refunds on Gift Cards.
- Established: LivingSocial presented and sold the offer to customers.
- Reported, but not fully documented: LivingSocial purchased or arranged the cards through Amazon.
- Not established: whether Amazon, LivingSocial, or both absorbed the discount, or whether the promotion was profitable for either company.
ClickZ’s coverage discusses the reported terms and the unresolved cost question.
Why it stood out in the daily-deals boom
LivingSocial and Groupon had built their businesses around time-limited offers, commonly for local restaurants, spas, shops, and experiences. The Amazon card offer applied that urgency and distribution model to a national online retailer instead. It offered a way for LivingSocial to reach a large audience and for Amazon to put its brand in front of daily-deal customers, although the available figures alone cannot prove how many buyers were new customers or what either company gained after costs.
Rank #4
- Gift Card is redeemable towards millions of items storewide at Amazon.com
- Gift Card has no fees and no expiration date
- Gift Card is nested inside a specialty gift box
- Free One-Day Shipping (where available)
- Scan and redeem any Gift Card with a mobile or tablet device via the Amazon App
At the time, reports compared LivingSocial’s roughly $13 million in customer spending with Groupon’s approximately $11 million Gap promotion. That was a comparison between two large deal campaigns, not evidence that LivingSocial had overtaken Groupon as a business. TechCrunch’s initial report covered the early sales pace; Fortune’s follow-up examined the event’s significance for Amazon.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What happened after the gift-card sale
Amazon later introduced AmazonLocal, a local-deals service. In its August 25, 2011 announcement, Amazon said the service would include deals sourced through its strategic relationship with LivingSocial as well as deals sourced directly by AmazonLocal. This shows that the companies’ relationship extended into the deals market, but it does not prove that the January gift-card sale caused Amazon to launch the service. Amazon’s AmazonLocal launch announcement describes the sourcing relationship.
Quick wins for a faster PC:
Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesFind Drivers →Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsFix Now →Best Value
- Gift Card is redeemable towards millions of items storewide at Amazon.com
- Gift Card has no fees and no expiration date
- Gift Card is affixed inside a mini envelope
- Free One-Day Shipping (where available)
- Scan and redeem any Gift Card with a mobile or tablet device via the Amazon App
Amazon also announced AmazonLocal offers on Kindle in September 2011, again referencing LivingSocial-sourced deals. In March 2012, CBS News reported an AmazonLocal offer selling a $10 Amazon gift card for $5, while comparing it with LivingSocial’s earlier $10-for-$20 promotion. These later offers illustrate Amazon’s continuing experimentation with deal distribution; they were separate promotions, not the January 2011 LivingSocial sale. Amazon’s Kindle announcement and CBS News’ 2012 report cover those later developments.
What “another deal” means
The firmly documented headline-level event is LivingSocial’s January 19, 2011 sale of $20 Amazon gift cards for $10. The word “another” implies an earlier Amazon-LivingSocial offer, but the accounts cited here do not independently identify that earlier promotion. Depending on the original headline’s publication context, “another” could refer to a separate prior deal or to the companies’ ongoing commercial relationship, including Amazon’s recent investment. Without the original article or archive, it should not be treated as proof of a specific earlier sale.
Quick Recap
Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon at the time of purchase will apply.
