An Open Letter to Woot and Yahoo!
If you haven’t heard the news, our biggest “competitor”, Woot, has just inked a deal with the internet giant Yahoo! The site will be called “Sellout” through sellout.woot.com. Of course, as co-founder of OfferOfTheDay.com I am a little rattled by this news. People are always coming up to us and saying ‘there’s this silly little site called “Woot” that’s trying to copy you guys’. I’m sick and tired of telling people that OfferOfTheDay.com is in no way “flattered” by their blatant imitation. For Woot to get a big deal over us is the catalyst for me writing this letter.
Forgive my boldness, but OfferOfTheDay.com is the GREATEST daily offer site on the internet…PERIOD! And for Yahoo! to flagrantly disrespect OfferOfTheDay.com, the market leader, by teaming up with “number 2″ is beyond me. We here at OfferOfTheDay.com weren’t even approached about a deal. The guys working under the strategic partnerships division at Yahoo! Shopping must be spending too much time sipping margaritas1 at the Mexicali Grill.
Because I am a Yahoo! user (I love MyYahoo!, Yahoo Answers!, YUI etc..), I address this statement to the boys and girls over at Yahoo! with utter and complete disappointment: We NEVER wanted your crappy partnership in the first place! That bridge has burned and now you have to live with your decision.
For you “lucky” bastards at Woot, that’s it…the proverbial gloves are off. OfferOfTheDay.com will no longer be “Mr. Nice Guy” in this market. Your little stunt you pulled with Yahoo! has awoken the “sleeping giant”. Our focus from now on will be to crush any other daily deal site on the web, and unfortunately Yahoo and Woot, this includes your precious little partnership.
Reasons why we’re the best & why Yahoo! screwed up:
Daily Deal Comparison - OfferOfTheDay.com vs. Woot
First of all, let’s examine one of our daily deals and compare it to the crap Woot was trying to push on the public that same day. On September 4th, our daily deal was a big can of salted almonds from TryMyNuts.com. Now answer me this…where on the planet can you ever find a fantastic deal like this? The only obvious answer - OfferOfTheDay.com. That same day, Woot had the audacity to try and “one-up” our almond offer with their so-called “deal” - Aspire Digital Amplified 5.1 Speaker Set. Pure absurdity I tell you! Anyone who’s anyone would choose to pop salty nuts in their mouth over listening to music on some dilapidated speakers.
Names and Branding - OfferOfTheDay.com vs. Woot
Now let’s discuss our names. “OfferOfTheDay.com” is a TRILLION times easier to say and remember than “Woot”. Who are these guys…a bunch of owls? Is that even a word…”Woot”? I just looked in the dictionary, and guess what? I didn’t find a damn thing relating to “woot”. I saw “woof”. At least with “woof”, their mascot could have been a dog or something more creative. OfferOfTheDay has 4 words in our name, and they’re ALL in the dictionary! Plus, we HAVE a mascot that we have named “The Smiling Jackass” and also an honorary mascot we have named “Chewbacca Jr.“.
Classy Users - OfferOfTheDay.com vs. Woot
We have the greatest and most loyal members a site could ask for. Just take a look at the tasteful comments some of our members have left for us. The comments are so intelligent and appropriate to the discussion at hand. Now look at some of the dribble that the “wooters” make.
So, in conclusion, I would like to ask Yahoo and Woot, “What do you have to say for yourselves now?”. To our loyal community of “OTD Nut-Huggers“, we would like to say “thank you” for your support and let’s crush these “Yahooters“!
Note: This post is meant to be sarcastic…
- In response to this “letter”, some “higher up” at Yahoo! Shopping actually sent me this photo of their group at the Mexicali Grill. [^]
13 USER COMMENTS:
You guys ARE a bunch of Jerks.
to be honest, i’ve never heard of your site before you wrote that letter. And now that I’ve read it, I will not be using your site. Way to alienate possible customers. Maybe Yahoo didn’t screw up.
Scott wrote:
I assure you, Yahoo! screwed up…BIG TIME! Our site only launched a couple of weeks ago, and we already rule the daily deal market. We’re so sure of how good we are, that we didn’t even show an offer or deal today! It was replaced with this letter to Woot and Yahoo!. Anyways, I don’t think Yahoo! could ever offer us what we’re worth. We’re taking over…
woot nuthugger wrote:
Thanks! This is the kind of POSITIVE FEEDBACK we are looking for. We need more keyboard warriors just like you.
I wonder how long it takes for all of these idiots to realize that this was a joke, and a rather funny one at that.
QuwenQ wrote:
Hey QuwenQ, thanks for joining…
I think people that miss the obvious sarcasm from the first 5 paragraphs start cluing in when they read: “OfferOfTheDay.com†is a TRILLION times easier to say and remember than “Wootâ€.
This is not how open letters work. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_letter
Luke over at Woot wrote:
Luke thanks for the comment…
There are a bunch of different definitions and motivations listed on that page. The first part of this post is intended to be “open letter-ish” but then it snowballs into a sarcastic mess…and intended to be humorous. Congrats on the Yahoo deal…which we still intend to crush.
Some “higher up” at Yahoo Shopping sent me a photo of their group sipping margaritas at the Mexicali Grill.
See here: http://www.offeroftheday.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/09/mexicali-pic.JPG
I knew it!!! They’re teasing us… These guys are going to pay! We just got to keep the great offers pouring out of this site on a daily basis.
That’s great!
Huh. I had a feeling those yahoos at Yahoo! were a bunch of slackers. Not hardcore enough like us googlers, cuz we do beer bong hits in our very own cubes.
[…] B.    http://www.offeroftheday.com/post/woot-yahoo-deal/ […]
woot nuthugger wrote:
Hey woot nuthugger, we take “Jerk” as a compliment. So…Thanks!!
POST A COMMENT:
If you are a current member, click here to login. Want to Join? Become a Member.