New Dubai website targets bargains for group-buyers

A new Dubai-based website based on the power of collective buying is set to launch in the emirate this month.

GoNabit.com is a new site that offers users the chance to get money off a different service or product each day if enough people across that city sign up.

The site, the first group-buying platform in the Middle East, will launch in Dubai in May and shortly afterwards in Abu Dhabi.

Other Middle Eastern cities – Amman, Beirut, Cairo, Doha, Jeddah, Kuwait City and Riyadh – will be added before the year end, a statement by the website said.

“We created GoNabit.com to be a pioneering, safe, secure, online group-buying platform for the region that helps people come together and save and discover locally,” Dan Stuart, co-founder and CEO, said.

Each day, GoNabit, will feature a different deal with 50-90 percent off the original price. People can sign up to the deal – or Nabit – with their credit card. Once the minimum number of buyers is reached the deal is agreed and the user charged. Users are then sent a voucher which they can redeem with the local merchant. If the minimum number of buys is not reached before the deal closes after 24 hours, no one gets the deal or is charged.

“This need for critical mass allows us to negotiate great deals, while the platform’s in-built social tools, and the need to spread the word to make sure the deal tips is what makes the experience on GoNabit unique,” Stuart said.

GoNabit was founded by Stuart and Sohrab Jahanbani and is backed by the Middle Eastern job website Bayt.com.