Discountshuffle is looking for a creative graphic designer / web developer to take ownership of the frontend development of the website. The ideal candidate will come from a graphic design / computer science background that focused heavily on website design. Additionally, any commercial experience gathered working for media companies or internet startups in similar roles is viewed favorably. This position is based globally and the successful candidate will be working directly with the cofounders of the company.

Responsibilities
- Extend the current design of the website
- Develop the frontend of Discountshuffle, which will build on top of the use cases / requirements backend
- Take ownership of all design related topics
- Bring in ones own ideas on best practices regarding layout and functionality of the website

Requirements
- Creative in approach
- Communicate openly
- Proactive and energetic
- Take ownership of tasks and propose innovative solutions
- Comfortable working in a startup environment
- BA/BS or background in graphic design / computer science / frontend web development or equivalent
- Confident programming in HTML, CSS and any other required web development languages
- Some knowledge of Python / Django would be useful but not required
- In depth knowledge of Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator and other graphic design packages

If you are interested please email your brief cover note and CV to Emilio or Roger at jobs (a) discountshuffle.com

After a successful launch in September 2009, Discountshuffle an aspiring social shopping network offering discounts and rebates has launched two new key features, geo-location tagging of ads and the Shufflebar.

Geo-location tagging ads allows online shops to target their ads and discounts to users of a specific country or region to which they deliver. The feature works by correlating the IP address of the user with the countries the online shop has chosen to run their ads in and ensuring that only users who live in the respective countries are shown the ads.

The Shufflebar is a bar the loads on top of each online shopping site the user is redirected to, giving users the option of more easily being redirected to the next online shop should they want to. In addition, this feature allows online shops to communicate a message, for example a discount code to each potential buyer making it easier for online shops to advertise. Currently Discountshuffle operates by having online shops register one or several discounts / coupon codes on their site, which are added to a pool of links. Users that navigate to Discountshuffle are redirected to a randomly shuffled discount out of the pool. At this stage the user has the option to either purchase the items on offer or make use of the Shufflebar to see the next discount.

The site offers several advantages for both users and shops. Users have a centralized place from where they can obtain discounts in a fun way. They can also explore new shops and subsequently find new items that they can buy at a discount. Shops benefit from the opportunity that they can advertise via a unique concept and target an audience that are willing to spend money for the right product and discount.

Discountshuffle is based in Germany, currently focusing primarily on the US and European online shop advertising market. The team behind the project are based in Germany and Spain with experiences as wide ranged as media and corporate finance. Nevertheless the much needed IT knowledge lies in house.

In summary Discountshuffle offers a portal, where online shops have the option of advertising discounted products to users that are on the lookout to make a deal on their next purchase.

Mid December saw two key transactions completed. The first major transaction was Gowalla raising $8.5m in Series B financing giving it a valuation of roughly $28.4m. The second transaction was the sale of Friendster to MOL Global for roughly $100m.

Gowalla is a service which effectively allows you to use your iPhone to tag locations you have visited and share them with friends. In addition it has PackRack running on Facebook which drives its social network. Geo-location based applications are currently the flavor of the month resulting in Gowalla obtaining a value per user (UV) of $568 nearly 2.5x higher than Plaxo who witnessed a UV of $200 in May ’08. To put this into perspective Facebook is estimated to have a UV of $32 in May ’09.

Friendster is social network similar to Facebook. It is the third largest network with roughly 50m-150m users depending on what source you quote. In comparison Facebook leads the way with over 300m users. Unfortunately, for Friendster user numbers alone don’t equate to a huge valuation. Depending on which source you use the estimated UV is $0.67 - $2 far less than the $32 Facebook enjoys. It appears that building a critical mass of users will only benefit your valuation if you are the leader in the market you operate in as can be seen with Facebook.

After successfully launching in September 2009 we have been working hard on implementing two new key features.

The first being the Shufflebar, which allows you to more easily navigate through online shops and their discounts without the need to return back to Discountshuffle after having been redirected. If you want to give this feature a try simply return to Discountshuffle and click the barcode. The Shufflebar will load at the top of the page and display any discount code / coupon that may be used on the subsequent site.

The second feature several online shops asked for is the ability to display certain ads in certain countries or regions. We have added the ability to geotag ads, which means that we will show your site to the countries you operate in allowing you to better target our audience and save you money by redirecting only those users living in the countries you deliver to.

We hope you enjoy these new features and stay tuned as we implement more features for both our users and online shops in the coming six months.

The global recession in 2009 affected the online ad market as it did pretty much every other industry in all geographies. Despite a sharp turn in global trade and many markets seeing revenue diminish by 20%, 30% and even 40% the online ad market grew by a modest 0.7% during 2009.

According to Samsung Securities the online ad market as a whole is expected to expand by 18.3% throughout 2010 driven by increased ad budgets and improved consumer sentiment. The market can widely be divided into two markets, the display ad market and the search ad market each expected to grow 16.9% and 19% respectively. Aside from accelerated spending in 2010 by advertisers new advertising products, such as video streaming overlaid with targeted ads or micro blogging ads are seen as key drivers for the ads market. 2010 and beyond will see a strengthening in the market due to an increase in global internet users resulting in a further shift away from traditional media and towards digital. In turn traditional media outlets will continue to shift towards digital with ever growing pace as it sees it advertising revenues dwindle.

During 2009 UK based advertisers spent the highest amount on online ads in comparison with other mediums such as TV, Magazine, etc. Online ads captured 23.5% of the market according to a study conducted by PWC and IAB. A similar shift is witnessed in the US where internet ad spending is expected to come in at 15.4% for 2009 and is forecasted to grow to 17% in 2010. In Korea Samsung Securities forecasted that internet advertising at 17.6% 2009 market share is the third largest market after TV and newspapers. In 2010 the market share is expected to increase to 18.8%.

Social networks and in particular social shopping portals allow for far more targeted ads than online display/search ads. Social shopping portals have a user base that is keen to spend money and in general is looking to be connected to products that appeal to them. In 2009 these portals have attracted ever higher advertising Dollars resulting in market share forecasts for 2011 based on Dollars spent surpassing search and display ads.