LivingSocial works to move beyond daily deals

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LivingSocial, like its larger rival Groupon, is working to move beyond daily deals.

Washington-based LivingSocial, which is privately held, is not getting rid of the deals for restaurants, spas and getaways that land in subscribers' inboxes every day. Rather, the company is expanding the number of deals it offers, extending the duration of their availability and adding online coupons for national chains to its offerings.

Jake Maas, senior vice president of product and operations, said the changes represent an evolution of LivingSocial's business that comes from listening to what customers want. This ranges from travel offerings to deals from large retailers and restaurant chains. The company has expanded the number of its travel deals more than sevenfold to cover a broad range of options, from budget-oriented to luxury offerings.

The move follows the publicly traded Groupon Inc.'s expansion beyond daily deals into new services. The Chicago-based company recently acquired last-minute travel booking app Blink to boost its Groupon Getaways business. And it launched Groupon Reserve, which lets people book restaurant tables at a discount.

And it comes on the heels of Google Inc.'s decision to redesign its Gmail inboxes so that promotions, social network notifications and other non-personal email go into separate folders. Users have click over from a "primary" email tab to see messages Google deems as secondary.