There is one company by the name of Cellfire who does this. We all know that during the economic recession, everyone is looking for more ways to save money. This is an opportune time for mobile coupon businesses. But here’s the catch: in order for this to work, everyone must have a smart phone and will have to front the SMS costs.

If this idea were to be implemented in densely populated countries such as China and India (where coincidentally, incoming SMS happens to be free) there is no doubt that such an idea would work. Unlike the US where so much money goes into coupons, there are no coupon industries in India. With that in mind, I sought out an answer to that problem and observed that instead of using physical coupons, manufacturers offer deals directly to customers. The premise is the same; for example, there are buy-one-get-one-free deals. Why not bypass the paper coupons and go straight to an electronic format where mobile subscribers receive great deals? This would be a huge hit.

Here is a recent study that shows how coupon business has been doing in the USA.

http://www.inc.com/news/articles/2010/02/coupon-use-hits-record-high.html