Coupons Inc., has poached Android engineering director Steve Horowitz to be its chief technology officer, reports The Wall Street Journal. Coupons provides a software platform that enables marketers to manage coupon programs and is the owner of Coupons.com, a enormously successful website that enables consumers to print off coupons and save on purchases.
Horowitz was hired by Google back in 2006 to spearhead the development of Android but has decided to move on the greener pastures as the focus of the Android team is now on porting the operating system to more mobile phones and other devices such as netbooks and possibly even televisions.
Horowitz was also attracted to Coupons due to its continuing growth in today’s harsh economic climate. As consumers feel the financial pinch, Coupons.com provided $300 million in coupon savings in 2008, a 140 percent increase from 2007. And the company has no plans to slow down. It is targeting $1 billion for 2009 and is planning on hiring 40 more employees as it plans to “extend its promotions platform to in-store, in-appliance, and mobile phones”, Coupons said in a statement.
Coupons–the ones you use, not necessarily the company–will play a greater part in location-based services as well in the future. As more mobile phones and other portable devices utilize GPS and Wi-Fi positioning, the ability for coupons to be targeted at consumers is growing. Because devices can pinpoint your exact location, coupon marketing companies can deliver relevant coupons to your mobile device that could save you money on purchases in your location. Furthermore, as companies become more effective in mining data, only those coupons that pertain to your buying history could be delivered to you, increasing their effectiveness and hopefully decreasing your frustration level–because we all know about the privacy issues surrounding this type of marketing.
As one of the major minds behind Android, which itself heavily emphasizes location integration into applications, Steve Horowitz could help Coupons, Inc., expand into targeted mobile marketing and I’m betting that’s exactly what he’ll do. Check out the video below of Horowitz talking about Android.
via wsj
(Image Credit: striatic)