As new players jump into the space, the competition to maintain healthy streams of SMB offerings will increase. To stay competitive, Google, Facebook, and Groupon will undoubtedly have to lower percentage splits and offer enticing customer data to their businesses. How exactly all this will pan out remains to be seen, but the competition is giving SMBs new and attractive options when considering discount services.

Ilie Mitaru is a culture and business journalist and occasional entrepreneur. He is the founder of the alternative business magazine, Stake, set to launch in June. You can find him on .