Coming to a market near you soon!
Good story on the BBC: -
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-15574954
It's an interesting business model. One which Google will probably outflank.
Groupon
How can an intermediery firm between conspicous consumers (rapidly becoming rarer species) and companies providing non-essential goods & services can ever to be expected to be valued at $12.7bn especially at the time where majority of companies & assets are loosing their value on a massive scale?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/0 ... hole_Foods_
Does discounting really has any future in a free market economy where each firm must compete for survival which will in turn ensure that the margin is as close to 0 as possible?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/0 ... hole_Foods_
Does discounting really has any future in a free market economy where each firm must compete for survival which will in turn ensure that the margin is as close to 0 as possible?
Shares in daily deals site Groupon have jumped more than 30% on the company's first day of trading in New York.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-15598287
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-15598287
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CaerMyrddin
- Posts: 1271
- Joined: Mon Sep 07, 2009 10:47 am
Interesting reading. I was dinnering last week with a friend at a restaurant where there were only us, so the owner was bored to death started chating and told that she had an horror month when she made the groupon deal. I've used their services only once to a one week vacation with my wife and to be honest I can't understand who I paid less for a whole week 'all inclusive' (and boy can I drink 
) than I would have paid just for the plane trip at the cheapest flight available?
Anyway, I really enjoyed the price
) than I would have paid just for the plane trip at the cheapest flight available?Anyway, I really enjoyed the price
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superfrank
- Posts: 2762
- Joined: Fri Aug 14, 2009 8:28 pm
I'd never even heard of Groupon until reading this thread!
A bit crazy that a company like this could end up with such a valuation... I guess it shows just how important consumerism has become to western economies.
Interesting company history on wiki... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groupon
A bit crazy that a company like this could end up with such a valuation... I guess it shows just how important consumerism has become to western economies.
Interesting company history on wiki... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groupon
Some analysts claim that Groupon operates "like" a Ponzi scheme, according to interpretation of IPO documentation, because it has publicly disclosed that it is losing approximately US$100 million per quarter, has a net negative balance of $230 million, and is using later investors' money to pay off earlier investors—which makes their operations illegal.
Co-founder Eric Lefkofsky alone received over $300 million in early 2011, just weeks before the company filed its IPO paperwork. The large cash payout also made Groupon technically insolvent when it filed for its IPO.