LivingSocial Sells 27,000 Meals in Three Hours to Promote Real-Time Offers

LivingSocial sold 27,000 lunches in three hours today in Washington, D.C., as part of a promotion to highlight its new Instant Deals feature. The service allows people to get special offers immediately from their phone, rather than having to purchase them in advance to redeem later. For a short time today only, midday meals were marked down to $1 at 120 merchants–the next best thing to a free lunch. A spokesperson declined to comment on how much the merchants received for participating. Groupon is experimenting with a similar service called Groupon Now.