Our old buddy Mike Hogan is officially launching ZiXXo, the first self-service online coupon service at the Supernova Conference this week. Sounds a little mundane until you realize what an enormous business merchant coupons really are.  Last year, some 335 billion coupons were distributed in the U.S., and of those 4.5 billion were actually used so there is no shortage of coupon clippers out there.  The problem for local businesses has always been that 88% of these coupons are distributed by national companies through Sunday newspaper inserts, an avenue that the locals usually can't afford.   ZiXXo makes it easy and cost-effective for local businesses to get into the game. 

ZiXXo has a simple interface that allows merchants to create a coupon online, or upload an image of an existing coupon, and then ZiXXo syndicates the coupons through its own website, custom email alerts, custom RSS feeds and a growing network of syndication partners.  Consumers simply print the coupons, on demand, and redeem them with local businesses.  The local angle and the RSS distribution are the main tweaks. ZiXXo is launching its service at the Supernova 2006 Conference in San Francisco June 21-23 and is one of only 12 companies selected as a “Connected Innovator” by Michael Arrington of Techcunch.com and The Supernova Group, in conjunction with The Wharton School.