GoNabit, the online group-buying platform, that was launched for the region from Dubai earlier this year, has officially launched its first deal in Beirut Lebanon, marking its expansion into the third Arab city for it, after Dubai and Abu Dhabi.
Just like in other cities, GoNabit will be featuring deals that people can sign-up to receive and buy if they’re interested, within a limited timeframe, with the deal only taking place once a minimum number of buyers commit to buying.
The first deal in Beirut is one for women, a 61% discount on a blow dry, manicure, and pedicure at the Fadia El Mendelek Salon in Beirut.
It hasn’t been announced what the periodicity of deals in Beirut will be, but they could follow the same approach as when deals started in the second city, Abu Dhabi; in that case there were new deals on a weekly basis, and then the frequency was increased to introduce a deal every 2 or 3 days now. Dubai is currently the only city that gets daily deals.
Back when the service was launched, GoNabit said its plans were to expand the service further to cover ten regional cities before year-end; they’re almost a third of the way there.
The project was formed in January 2010 by Dan Stuart and Sohrab Jahanbani, both experienced technology insiders and entrepreneurs. The company is headquartered in Dubai, UAE with an office in Guelph, Canada.
It is backed by initial funding led by Bayt.com, making Bayt.com majority owner and at the same time enabling GoNabit to leverage Bayt.com’s well-established regional scale and contacts.