Facebook has announced that it is pulling Facebook Deals after a four-month testing period in five US cities.

The end of Facebook Deals comes just days after it announced plans to scrap Facebook Places.

Facebook Deals was supposed to be a major competitor of established group deal sites Groupon and LivingSocial. 

The social media giant is still offering Check-In Deals – which businesses can use to offer vouchers and offers to users who check in to Facebook from their premises. 

A Facebook  statement to TechRadar said: “After testing Deals for four months we’ve decided to end our Deals product in the coming weeks.”

However, Facebook also stresses that this is no the end of such initiatives. “We think there is a lot of power in a social approach to driving people into local businesses. We remain committed to building products to help local businesses connect with people, like Ads, Pages, Sponsored Stories, and Check-in Deals.”

So is Facebook is making way for new services? The web is already buzzing with rumours that Facebook plans to reveal its new iPad app at the 22 September F8 Developer Conference in San Francisco. 

PadGadget reports: “If the leaked screenshots are to be believed, we should expect a multi-pane navigation system that will allow you to chat with friends while still browsing the site – much the same way you can on a PC.”

Posted by 

Neil Turner