Groupon Traffic Drops by Half

CommanderFrank

CommanderFrank

Cat Can't Scratch It
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May 9, 2000
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Groupon website traffic may have hit its peak back in June when hopes were riding high on a $750 million cash influx in preparation for its planned IPO. Traffic numbers correlate directly to the amount of cash that can be raised and the numbers just aren’t there any longer.

As for Groupon, it could be flailing in reputation in the face of consumers amidst reports of unusual accounting schemes, costing business owners more money than they receive in return, and even bleeding money itself.
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That's what happens when you build an unsustainable business model

It now looks more like a ponzi scheme than a good deal for customers and businesses alike.

It's like Groupon is trying to play both sides off against each other and alienating them both in the process.
 
Something tells me they're kicking themselves for refusing Google's offers now...
 
I may not use them or even heard of them before they popped up on the news on here but each time I have it just seems like such a crap business.
 
From the first time I heard about it a year or two ago, everything about Groupon made me think of the first dotcom bubble. It was as if an internet company from 1998 time-traveled ten years into the future. I guess it can join the ranks of dotcom bubble 2.0 with a certain other scheme that is looking more and more like a Ponzi scheme.
 
Today's Groupon spa.. er offer sent to me was for 7% off teeth whitening services... geee.. 7%
 
So what is Groupon's need for money?

I assume they get businesses to "donate" items at deep discounts which in turn becomes their advertising revenue. So that takes some man-hours sending emailing/networking with others.

And they need a website that handles all the transactions/sends emails out.

Where the fuck is the need for three quarters of a billion dollars.
 
I get emails about Wine tasting, spa, and other crap I have no interest in. Since they opened I have done maybe three groupons.
 
I like groupon.....same with seize the deal and living social. I at least like every time they offer a restaurant deal, I buy everyone.
 
I have already used Google offers 3 times, GroupOn just never had anything that was interesting.
 
sfsuphysics said:
So what is Groupon's need for money?

I assume they get businesses to "donate" items at deep discounts which in turn becomes their advertising revenue. So that takes some man-hours sending emailing/networking with others.

And they need a website that handles all the transactions/sends emails out.

Where the fuck is the need for three quarters of a billion dollars.
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Why do you need money? They are not an non profit. They need to pay employees, they need to pay their bills, they need to pay for hosting.... Nor do they get people to just donate as far as I know. They go after businesses and get them to give deals for group purchases. So basically they find a store or something and get them to give them a deal something like where if 1000 people buy a $20 gift card they will sell it to them for only $18 since they are being bought in bulk.

In theory it is a good idea for some stuff, but in some cases the people buying the deals get screwed over.
 
They're not as lucrative as when they first started...
 
Exavior said:
Why do you need money? They are not an non profit. They need to pay employees, they need to pay their bills, they need to pay for hosting.... Nor do they get people to just donate as far as I know. They go after businesses and get them to give deals for group purchases. So basically they find a store or something and get them to give them a deal something like where if 1000 people buy a $20 gift card they will sell it to them for only $18 since they are being bought in bulk.

In theory it is a good idea for some stuff, but in some cases the people buying the deals get screwed over.
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I know they need money, I even stated that in my original post, but how much money do they need for what they do. Their business model should at the least be self sufficient, meaning those few bucks/cents shaved off each deal they keep is their income source. Sometimes plans don't go there, in which case maybe you fire some of your workers since you obviously don't need that many. The major point being their $750M of cash influx... how many employees are they hiring?
 
They seem to have gone WAY downhill since the backlash over the superbowl ads.
 
unsurprising, considering how shitty the deals are on groupon.

it's been like that since day 1.
 
So wait... A business model consisting of convincing other companies to pay you to sell their products at a loss is not a good idea? Who would have thunk it????
 
I've bought...3-4 deals from Groupon. Generally the things I buy are odds and ends stuff for me to do with my kids that I would have never paid full price to do, but at 50-70% off, sure why not, even if it sucks, it has to suck 2x more than it would have to feel like I got ripped off.

As far as their business model. Its too easy to defeat and too hard to maintain. Should have sold when the getting was good. They'll be a flash in the pan within 18 months
 
I know that about a year ago there were prime restaurants and bars featured constantly. Now all I seem to get are coupons for spas, teeth whitening, and restaurants that are 40 miles away but are still on the fringe of the metro area. Even worse, many of the newer restaurant ones that I do want now carry crazy restrictions.
I think all of the competitions from other sites like Living Social and such are killing 'em. There are too many.
 
I dunno, I've gotten some good deals from Groupon. Went white water rafting for half off for my birthday.
 
Groupon goes to my spam folder now. Nothing but crap they offer in my area.

I used it once and their "discount" wouldn't work other discounts the merchant was doing so ended up paying a inflated regular price so my groupon discount would work.
 
arentol said:
So wait... A business model consisting of convincing other companies to pay you to sell their products at a loss is not a good idea? Who would have thunk it????
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I have been saying this all along. It would work if you could turn a coupon clipper into a profitable client. That isn't an easy thing to do, and the majority of those consumers just move on to the next deal. They have no loyalty to brand or products, just prices.

When a business has to compete on price alone then they have already lost the fight.
 
Because all the deals are for retarded shit that I don't want. Way to many facials, massages, waxing and haircuts...

Give me some half price coupons for great local restaurants (oh wait, restaurant.com already does that). :rolleyes:
 
I think half their traffic comes to my email address, and no matter what I do they won't fucking stop.

I never even sighed up for their crap.
 
I find Groupon very annoying. One deal per day, you have to do it on their schedule, that's not for people like me. I hate being told what to do.
 
I looked on their site and its always something I have no interest in. I don't want a back massage. I don't want to go photo studio.
 
Einhanderkiller said:
Google offered to buy them for $6 bil.

Now they're not even worth $1 bil.
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I realize it's easy being an armchair strategist, but i will never get why these companies don't sell when they're given these big offers. Take the freakin offer, split the profit, then move on to other things.

I've seen it happen on a smaller scale, back during the big dot com bubble, a relative of mine was offered 1mil for his rinky dink site which he put very little effort into building/maintaining. Like an ass he refused, sat on his laurels and glory about it, the website and his efforts went downhill immediately. Just 2 or 3 years later the site ceased to exist and believe me it's not because he went on to bigger and better things since then.

There's a difference between good greed, bad greed, and just being a complete ass.
 
There's way too many similar programs going on right now, and most of them have similar problems. The main one being that you have to pay for the coupon up front so if something comes up or you forget you just wasted money. The only one that I know of that's slightly different is scoutmob but they aren't as big as the others (Atlanta tends to get good deals since they are based out of here)
 
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