Groupon announced at the 2012 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona on Monday that it experienced a record-breaking month in December among mobile app users, as one quarter of all Groupon vouchers were purchased via a mobile device.
The deal-of-the-day site said usage of its mobile app more than tripled over the previous year to 9 million users as of December.
To expand the reach of its app, Groupon also revealed plans to roll out mobile service to more than 30 countries in the near future. It already has its daily-deal service via the web available in 48 countries.
The company will be expanding its partnership with Nokia to bring the location-based service to global customers and allow users to purchase deals directly from mobile devices.
Over the past year, Groupon's U.S. mobile app has been enhanced with an improved user interface and new deal types, including Groupon Getaways travel features, Groupon Goods products and Groupon Now! real-time deals.
“Groupon continues to change the way people shop locally,” Mihir Shah, vice president of mobile for Groupon, said in a statement. “As smartphone adoption increases and the capabilities of our mobile products evolve, we look forward to harnessing the power of mobile to make it even easier for merchants partners around the world to run and market their businesses effectively.”
The company also noted that 12,000 merchant partners have already used Groupon’s merchant mobile app to redeem vouchers and track purchases using an iOS device or an Android phone.
Do you use Groupon's mobile app? Do you think location-based deal sites are here to stay? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
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