Hi, 

In the US, Val-pak, Shopwise, Clipper magazine, and others have made a
huge business of aggregating local marketing and couponing via direct
mail.  I am looking for any kind of comparable companies in South
Korea, Mexico, Chile and the Czech Republic.  If none exist, that is
fine, but i would be interested in how one comes to that conclusion. 
Also, if there are no big players, are there small ones?  Is this kind
of thing done in these places?  Is it culturally acceptable?  How big
is direct mail advertsiing in general in these places?  Any good
articles or web sites on this topic would be appreciated as well.

(Even personal opinions from natives would be useful!)

Ideally, answer would include 2-3 companies per country if they exist.
 Less is acceptable if that is simply reality.  Please share sources.

Thanks a ton!
Joe

Hi Joe!

I have found several “couponing” sites in Mexico, Chile, Korea and the
Czech Republic.

The development of Internet in Latam (Latin America) was huge in the
last two years. Now, most of those start-ups are not online anymore.
Many of them just do not exist by now, and some of them are changing
their business model. This is what you can find in Chile: very few
projects of this kind, and most of them offline. On the other hand,
Mexico seems to have a more sucessful internet history: you can find
many Mexican “couponing” sites still online.

Although there are some coupon magazines and sites in Latam, it is not
a tradition as it is in the US. But, yes, it is culturally aceptable
and I think it‘s becoming more usual.


I have language limitations to understand the Korean market, but I
found a key source to understand it (
http://www.hongik.ac.kr/~tidings/no_101/101-24.html  ). There is a
huge coupon industry in Korea (since the Americans introduced the
coupon system to them) and many online websites offering discount
coupons. I will give you a list of them and their contact information.
You may not understand korean (well, maybe you do), but you will
appreciate the design quality and business dimension of them.

As to coupon marketing in the Czech Rep: I understand it is usually a
marketing strategy of each company,  for their own business products.
My friend from Prague says that only a few years ago, you could find
coupons in the newspapers only once in a while and that there was no
coupon tradition. Anyway, she helped me in this research and we found
several “couponing” sites. Apparently, couponing is usual now.

 

1) Mexico:

Promo Ticket

http://www.promoticket.com/

Panamá No. 123 Col. Vista Hermosa

Monterrey, Nuevo León, C.P. 64620

Tels. (81)83-33-9124 y (81)83-33-2997 

 

Cuporama.com

http://www.cuporama.com/

P. Feliciano Velázquez 583, Vallarta Sur

Guadalajara, Jal. C.P. 44500

Tel. (1) 3343-2203 Tel./Fax. 3121-0541

informacion@cuporama.com

 

Estoy Pelado

http://www.estoypelando.com

info@estoypelando.com

(Based in Caracas, Venezuela, but also operates in Mexico and
Argentina)

Find lists at (some of the mentioned sites may not work anymore): 

Yahoo Mexico

http://mx.yahoo.com/Economia_y_negocios/Productos_y_servicios_para_el_consumidor/Cupones_de_descuento/

 

Dmoz

http://search.dmoz.org/cgi-bin/search?search=cupones+de+descuento

 

2) Chile (if you search in Google, you will find many other sites,
remember that most of them are not online anymore).

 

Cupones Online

http://www.cuponesonline.com/

(Although it based in Buenos Aires, Argentina, it also operates in
Chile).

Ciudad de la Paz 2372
C1428CPN - Capital Federal
Buenos Aires, Argentina
info@cuponesonline.com

Read an article about a coupon business in Chile at (dated in 2000):

Para los fanáticos de los Descuentos y Promociones.

http://www.chiletech.cl/link.cgi/Empresas/C/CUPONES.CL/

I also found “Con Cupones” at

http://www.concupones.com/ and Contact info at: 

http://www.portaldecocina.com/contactenos3.htm

You may check it, I don’t think this is really working anyway. 

 

3) Korea:

 

Interesting starting point for coupon business in Korea:

“So, it is not an exaggeration to say that we are being flooded with
coupons.The history of coupon is much longer than you may think. In
America, it dated from about one hundred years ago, and it is not
short in Korea because it began when Americans introduced the coupon
system to Koreans”, in “What Are Coupons for, Really?”, By Kim Se-hee

http://www.hongik.ac.kr/~tidings/no_101/101-24.html

 

Yahoo list for coupon sites in Korea:

http://kr.search.yahoo.com/search?p=coupon&jy=all

and

http://coupons.yahoo.co.kr/

 

Citynet

http://coupon.citynet.co.kr/ 

contents@citynet.co.kr 

Fax:(02)553-6505 TEL:(02)553-6654

 

Coupon2you

http://www.coupon2you.co.kr/

Tel : (02)591-7212 / Fax : (02)591-7214

 

Coupon Dream

http://www.coupon-dream.co.kr 

manual@coupon-dream.co.kr

 

Coupon Chosun

http://coupon.chosun.com/ 

coupon@chosun.com

 

Coupon Joa

http://www.couponjoa.co.kr/ 

coupon@couponjoa.co.kr

 

Other “couponing” korean sites:

 

http://coupon.citynet.co.kr/

http://coupons.yahoo.co.kr/ 

http://www.couponquiz.com/search/index.php 

http://gpgk.net/coupon/ 

http://www.coupon-dream.co.kr/ 

http://coupon.officeplus.co.kr/ 

http://www.nmusica.com/coupon/ 

http://coupon.dcplus.co.kr/ 

http://www.menupan.co.kr/food/Search_coupon.asp 

http://www.couponews.co.kr/ 

http://www.couponmoa.co.kr/ 

http://www.couponauction.co.kr/ 

 

4) Czech Republik

 

Seslevou (means “with discount”)

http://www.seslevou.cz

This a website where small business that can not afford a website, can
offer their products for just 3 dolars/month and consumers buy there
with important discounts.
info@seslevou.cz.

 

Akcniceny

http://www.akcniceny.cz

Akcniceny.cz offers a new service - it accumulates discount coupons.
You chose one and it will be sent to you by mail. Do not expect a wide
range of discounts.
jiri.kohout@kobranet.cz  (I’m not sure if this is the webmaster’s or a
marketing address).

 
Zlatestranky (yellow pages).

http://www.zlatestranky.cz/kupony_cz_b.html

I think this is the kind of service you are looking for. A coupon
directory powered by “Golden pages”.
Štìpaøská 980, 152 00 Praha 5 
(02) 571 02 207-211, 0800 199 199 
fax:   (02) 21 80 74 47  (02) 581 72 50 
obchodni@mediatel-dm.cz

 
 
Search Strategy: 

Key words:

“Cupones online”

“Cupones de descuento”

Diskont Kupon

Chile

Czech

Mexico

Korea

Cz

Cl

Kr

Mx

 

Search engynes and directories:

www.yahoo.com (local version for Korea and Mexico)

www.dmoz.org

www.google.com

www.alltheweb.com

 

Good luck!

Lrargerich

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Clarification of Answer by lrargerich-ga on 15 Jul 2002 13:37 PDT

Is this the kind of information you are looking for?. If not, please,
ask me for further clarification.
Regards,  
Lrargerich

---

Request for Answer Clarification by joseph77b-ga on 19 Jul 2002 01:31 PDT

Hi Lrargerich,

thank you for the fantastic info.  just one more quick question and i
will happily give you a great rating.

Q:  Have you come across any information, articles, opinions etc.
which address the cultural acceptability of direct mail marketing in
various countries, especially those discussed?  Or, just as important,
any legal barriers to doing direct mail marketing?  Where is it
culturally acceptable, even exciting?  Where is it frowned upon and
even illegal?

Thanks!
Joe

---

Clarification of Answer by lrargerich-ga on 19 Jul 2002 10:47 PDT

Hi Joe! I'm glad you like my work :)

You should know there's a thin line between online direct marketing
and spamming.
I tryed to find resources to figure out where each country has drawn
the line.

You will find legal starting points about Internet regulation (by
country), direct marketing and ecommerce organizations.
Then, there's a list of articles about direct marketing and spamming
about the countries you are interested in.

I'm affraid that many of these resources are in spanish. I could not
find good information in english for latinamerican countries.

1)
Starting points about Internet Policy net regulation by country and
Direct Marketing organizations:

INTERNATIONAL
Federacion de comercio electronico y marketing directo (Spanish)
(Direct Marketing and Ecommerce Federation)
Home
http://www.fecemd.org/default.asp
Law
http://www.fecemd.org/legislacion.asp
Contacts
fecemd@fecemd.org

International Federation of Direct Marketing Organizations (English)
http://www.ifdma.org/
Find here the links to the DM org of many emerging markets

COREA
Korea Internet White Paper - [PDF] Internet Policy (ENGLISH)
http://www.nca.or.kr/white/data/2001engwhite/chapter1.pdf

ARGENTINA

Asociación de Marketing Directo e Interactivo de Argentina (Spanish)
http://www.amdia.org.ar/habeasdata_reglamentacion.htm
Habeas Data
PROTECCION DE LOS DATOS PERSONALES (personal data protection act from
Argentina)
Decreto 1558/2001
mailto: gerencia@amdia.org.ar

MEXICO (SPANISH)

ACADEMIA MEXICANA DE DERECHO INFORMÁTICO
http://www.amdi.org.mx/


DERECHO INFORMÁTICO - RKT LEGAL CONSULTING
http://sites.netscape.net/rktconsulting/DI/


JURISMATICA
http://www.geocities.com/capitolhill/5536/


CHILE (SPANISH)

CENTRO DE ESTUDIOS EN DERECHO INFORMÁTICO
http://www.cedi.uchile.cl/


CENTRO DE INFORMÁTICA JURÍDICA
http://www.cij.uchile.cl/


INFORMÁTICA JURÍDICA DOCUMENTA
http://www.chile.cc/ijd/

CZECH REPUBLIC

Tradelinks - publisher of English translations of major Czech laws and
business guidebooks
http://www.tradelinks.cz

Automated System of Legal Information - ASPI
http://www.byll.cz

Code of Laws (Ministry of the Interior) (only in Czech)
http://www.mvcr.cz

Code of Laws (only in Czech)
http://www.sbcr.cz

2)
Some articles of your interest:

COREA (ENGLISH)
Spam Flooding the Internet and Responses to the Growing Threat
With the rapid rise of the Internet and the explosive growth of
Internet users, the use of electronic mail is on the rise. E-mail is
an important application of the Internet since it is more convenient
and faster than a traditional mail. Compared with the traditional one,
e-mail can be delivered to a multitude of people at a faster speed and
a lowercheaper cost over the communication network. In addition, it
offers users anonymity.
http://www.kisa.or.kr/en-kisa/newletter/200009/special2.htm

Ministry toughens rules against spam mail The Ministry of Information
and Communication (MIC) said yesterday it has toughened restrictions
on unsolicited email, or "spam," in a bid to help ease the traffic jam
on the Web and protect user privacy.
http://www.koreanwar.org/html/korea_herald_spam.html

Declaración conjunta NIC Chile - Acepta CHILE (Spanish)
On April 2001, Acepta.com company from Chile did a direct marketing
campaign using Email databases. It was considered as Spam.
They used the lists from NIC Chile and other websites. This is an
anounce made by both Nic and Acepta.
http://www.nic.cl/anuncios/2001-05-15.html

Information on possibilities to realize Direct Marketing in the Czech
republic (English)
http://www.admass.cz/english.html

E-COMMERCE IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC 2000 (ENGLISH)
http://www.amcham.cz/downloads/e-commerce.pdf

La utilización del e-mail bajo permiso (Spanish)
Why is better to use email under permission than spamming.
http://www.marketalia.com/articulos/000012.html

Paper about use and abuse of Email in Spain (Spanish)
www.domeusprofesionales.com/documentos/uso-email.doc


Regards!

Lrargerich

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Clarification of Answer by lrargerich-ga on 19 Jul 2002 12:26 PDT

If you have problems understanding spanish, you can use the Altavista
Bablefish Translator at:
http://babelfish.altavista.com

If you need help with a specific word or sentence, ask me for help,
please.

Regards.

Awesome Work!!!  Fantastic.

Hi 
I found a website in construction where coupons will be available soon
for seven South American countries, including Chile.
http://www.cupones.cl/paises.php3
It is an affiliate of the USA Website CouponState.com
http://www.couponstate.com/pages/index.php3
There were a few other coupon specific Websites in Chile but they’ve
disappeared during this last year. Presently some coupons can be found
at a few Chilean ISP Websites.