It's pretty much a brand recognition thing. People recognize Groupon and would more likely be willing to conduct financial transactions through a well-known company. Most people who use the internet everyday like you and I don't care who is presenting the deal. Whether it be Groupon or some other advertising company.
The businesses that are offering the products or services get great recognition and exposure to new customers and would pay more for the better known advertising company, but are also willing to pay other advertising companies to do the same thing as well.
There will be a certain saturation level that will occur and the barrier to entry will rise quickly. One thing to note would be that these coupon advertising companies are bogged down and have long waiting lists.
They don't want to offer too many coupons for the same type of service or product in a given time period so they put businesses on waiting lists.
because otherwise I'm not sure how they're going to protect their concept. I mean, heck, I live in *Idaho* and there's something like four GroupOn competitors. I don't know how they differentiate themselves. I didn't even realize they were the first ones. I don't differentiate between them myself; I just look at the offers (and frankly I haven't even been doing that recently), not at who's providing them.
Just days after reports that Groupon may be putting a hold on its long awaited IPO, the word is out that our favorite coupon king is being sued by its own employees (I’m sure the term “former employees” would apply in this case) over unpaid overtime. The class action suit is being led by one-time sales department employee, Ranita Dailey on behalf of hundreds of Groupon employees, demanding back wages for the past three years plus punitive damages for the non-payment of overtime.
That's part of the trouble of being first to market. If you're going to be first, you have to keep innovating, and not rest on laurels, because there are always going to be competitors waiting in the wings to emerge during your weak moments.
I don't get it. What did they spend almost a billion dollars on? Lawyer fees? Obviously not accounting expenses. It seems like such a simple business model. Set up website, create legal docs. market to businesses and consumers of the targeted businesses.
Obviously there is a cap on the market and there is a low barrier to entry so branding is important to keep a decent market share. What is so difficult?
I mean in one day they sell 100 (certificates) for $100 each totaling $10,000 they take their 50% $5,000 That's just one of several deals in one location.
Are they trying to devalue their company? Are they getting advice from Netflix?
Ivka, you are right. If they are not able to generate enough traffic to their site, I don’t think they can get better revenue. Otherwise they have to go through a tuff cost cutting process. If they are not able to equalize the earnings and revenues, surly they may end up with a debt.
"It might have been the first (big) kid on that block, but it's open to anyone to steal the business."
That's the trouble with being first-to-market. GroupOn may have established the market here, but that doesn't mean it's in the clear. In the meantime others have had the chance to learn from GroupOn's mistakes and seize upon its missed opportunities.
The ThinkerNet does not reflect the views of TechWeb. The ThinkerNet is an informal means of communication to members and visitors of the Internet Evolution site. Individual authors are chosen by Internet Evolution to blog. Neither Internet Evolution nor TechWeb assume responsibility for comments, claims, or opinions made by authors and ThinkerNet bloggers. They are no substitute for your own research and should not be relied upon for trading or any other purpose.
Recently, the Obama administration has been of two minds where privacy rights are concerned. On one hand, you have an administration that vowed to veto CISPA and mandated open data for government websites. On the other hand, you have an increasingly out-of-control Department of Justice on a fishing expedition at AP and demanding legislation to let the FBI wiretap private, encrypted communications and levy fines if a company fails to comply.
The apartment and house sharing service, Airbnb, now requires members to verify their identities by demonstrating a presence on the web, and by either scanning a government ID or entering detailed personal details. Other enterprises should take a close look at Airbnb's verification policies.
Facebook advertising is a lightning rod. It seems neither brands nor consumers are 100 percent happy about the social media site's policies, placement, or procedures. But the real controversy about Facebook ads and promotions is over whether they work.
By now, you've most likely heard about the 3D-printed gun that Texas-based Defense Distributed demonstrated last week. But we haven't heard the last about the censorship war that began soon afterward.
New York's Metropolitan Transit Authority is conducting a pilot test of digital kiosks to guide subway users to where they want to go more efficiently and at lower cost.
The whole Amazon.reader debate is a double-stupid. It's stupid to think that there's any e-book buyer who doesn't know Amazon's URL, and it was stupider to let ICANN launch the whole free-form TLD initiative to start with.
While NFC's original goal was to enhance mobile commerce applications, it is finding its way into a number of other uses, which is creating both opportunity as well as challenges for IT departments.
Enterprises would like to move to cloud computing but are hesitant because they are concerned about providers’ ability to secure company data. Here are some tips that help to ensure that if breaches occur, the business is not left holding the bag.
Edmunds separates customers into segments based on the info it collects on its site and from partners, and uses that to push out custom content, said Brian Baron, director of business analytics for Edmunds.com, at Predictive Analytics Innovation Summit.
The automotive website uses propensity modeling to target ads and customer registration forms, said Brian Baron, director of business analytics for Edmunds.com, at Predictive Analytics Innovation Summit.
Subsidized handsets, rather than locked handsets, should be the focus of regulators. We're not getting good deals, not fostering innovation, and weakening our power as buyers.
Expert Integrated Systems: Changing the Experience & Economics of IT In this e-book, we take an in-depth look at these expert integrated systems -- what they are, how they work, and how they have the potential to help CIOs achieve dramatic savings while restoring IT's role as business innovator. READ THIS eBOOK
your weekly update of news, analysis, and
opinion from Internet Evolution - FREE! REGISTER HERE
Wanted! Site Moderators Internet Evolution is looking for a handful of readers to help moderate the message boards on our site – as well as engaging in high-IQ conversation with the industry mavens on our thinkerNet blogosphere. The job comes with various perks, bags of kudos, and GIANT bragging rights. Interested?
To save this item to your list of favorite Internet Evolution content so you can find it later in your Profile page, click the "Save It" button next to the item.
Email This
