Groupon's Net Loss Rises to Over $100 Million

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Groupon is taking "losses" to a whole new level. You know, to be honest, I just wish I had the ability to post $100 million losses, don't you?

With its steady stream of daily deals, Groupon has seen an increase in both subscribers and sales, but the company continues to rack up a string of net losses, reporting a second-quarter deficit of more than $100 million, according to a filing yesterday with the Securities and Exchange Commisson.
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Well they aren't the first tech company to loose money by the bucketful while their "value" kept going up. Some of the biggest names on the net once did the very same thing.
 
i am guessing the lost is due to buying hardware and stuff to support groupon traffic
 
Ha, they should have taken that ridiculous offer from google when they had the chance.
 
I have never use Groupon because all their offers is about massages or lame restaurants that i will never go to.
 
Should have sold it when someone was offering them 6 billion dollars.


tards
 
how you loose money, groupon makes a small profit for every merchandise posted and they pay the company based on the users deals purchase. If you have a website, where as you do not invest, no stocking and pay 0 employees, your losses will always be at 0, therefore trying to make money would be the only challenge, thats just me.
 
zomby said:
how you loose money, groupon makes a small profit for every merchandise posted and they pay the company based on the users deals purchase. If you have a website, where as you do not invest, no stocking and pay 0 employees, your losses will always be at 0, therefore trying to make money would be the only challenge, thats just me.
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Groupon actually makes quite a bit of money on it's customers. Without seeing their financial data I have no idea where the losses are coming from.
 
Just because a company isn't making money doesn't mean they are going to go out of business. Amazon famously lost money for 10 years.

I remember back when Jeff Bezos (CEO for Amazon) was asked if they were going to post a profit he replied. “We spell profit P-R-O-P-H-E-T”
 
In my opinion, they need to get some places other than yoga stuidios or dying restaurants on their site. It seems every day is "Half off yoga classes" or "50% off pilates classes." Yipee!

In the year or so I've been subscribed, I think I bought one deal for some drycleaning, and that was only because I knew I'd have to suit up for an upcoming event. I actually bought 2, but didn't read the fine print and could only use 1 on the order, so really I paid full price.
 
Their business model is literally selling people coupons. SELLING PEOPLE COUPONS! :eek:

It's 1932 and the newspaper has just launched a GROUPON KILLER!
 
the company continues to rack up a string of net losses, reporting a second-quarter deficit of more than $100 million, according to a filing yesterday with the Securities and Exchange Commisson.
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I'm sure there is a coupon for that:rolleyes:
 
I used it once for some Car Wash coupons. Worked well. Haven't seen anything else worthwhile.

Since they rejected Google's offer there's been a fair amount of negative PR regarding their model costing some of their customers tons of money and how harmful they can be. I suspect Google had a hand promoting them.

That said, if their customers offer deals that bankrupt them that's not Groupon's fault.
 
Taco said:
Since they rejected Google's offer there's been a fair amount of negative PR regarding their model costing some of their customers tons of money and how harmful they can be. I suspect Google had a hand promoting them.

That said, if their customers offer deals that bankrupt them that's not Groupon's fault.
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I listened to a podcast of a radio show once, can't remember where, that had some business owners call in to talk about their Groupon experience.

Of the several people that called in, there wasn't a single restaurant owner that said it was a positive experience. They said they had so many "Grouponers" come to their restaurant in the days/weeks following that they had to hire more help that they (mostly) couldn't afford. If they didn't hire help or if new hires were slow to learn, these same Grouponers were the ones that ended up on Yelp.com giving poor ratings for slow service during peak hours. To top it all off, even if the service was able to be maintained at acceptable levels, even selling 4000+ groupons did not result in many repeat customers.

On the other hand, one lady owned a middle-of-nowhere motel/resort or something. She said it was one of the best things she's ever done for her business because it actually filled her vacancies. She had a 30% occupancy or something, but after groupon, it was 70% + for several months. She also gave surveys to people using Groupons upon their departure, and a relatively high percentage said they would likely be back within 3 years. Whether or not that happens, who knows, but I can definitely see it being beneficial to this type of business.

Yoga/kickboxing/exercise instructors also seemed to like the experience. If you're teaching the class anyway with only 10 people, why not teach it with 10 people at full price plus 10 more at half price? You don't lose anything.
 
I try and stay off those sites. In the end they cost people more money than if they weren't on them. Yeah I might save money on the activity/service but I'm spending a boatload of cash on things I normally wouldn't buy so it's a net loss for me at the end of the day.
 
The only thing i bought from these sites was that ONE deal from LivingSocial where you paid $10 for a $20 gift card. Now that was a good deal and millions of ppl have bought that deal. Probably one of the biggest deals during the time and probably to this day.
 
Blown 89 said:
I try and stay off those sites. In the end they cost people more money than if they weren't on them. Yeah I might save money on the activity/service but I'm spending a boatload of cash on things I normally wouldn't buy so it's a net loss for me at the end of the day.
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Yup! This age of technology is really making for some fiscally dumb people out there who buy a bunch of stuff they don't need just because there is a good deal on it. Besides Groupon has never had any deals the times i've checked as it is always some sort of beauty salon, massage parlour, or some restaurant that I wouldn't ever try.
 
LOL small profit.

For every groupon they sell, they take HALF.

Granted, the business gets the other half in a lump sum check, which is good for small businesses to have that influx of cash, but still.
 
J So said:
Just because a company isn't making money doesn't mean they are going to go out of business. Amazon famously lost money for 10 years.

I remember back when Jeff Bezos (CEO for Amazon) was asked if they were going to post a profit he replied. “We spell profit P-R-O-P-H-E-T”
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that's true, but these coupon sites are now a dime a dozen. Livingsocial (the biggest one), and then a ton of smaller competitors (saveology, plum district, etc.) I don't see how groupon can add more value to what it offers when these smaller competitors can probably do the job just as well. I mean face it, groupon is sales. You can be a monkey and do sales.
 
bigpimpatl said:
that's true, but these coupon sites are now a dime a dozen. Livingsocial (the biggest one), and then a ton of smaller competitors (saveology, plum district, etc.) I don't see how groupon can add more value to what it offers when these smaller competitors can probably do the job just as well. I mean face it, groupon is sales. You can be a monkey and do sales.
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Can't argue with that.

For the record I think they were fools for not taking the 6B from Google
 
J So said:
Just because a company isn't making money doesn't mean they are going to go out of business. Amazon famously lost money for 10 years.

I remember back when Jeff Bezos (CEO for Amazon) was asked if they were going to post a profit he replied. “We spell profit P-R-O-P-H-E-T”
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Amazon actually provides a valuable service and isnt some gimmick site who's value is based on popularity over actual money making viability
 
^to clarify I dont think Groupon is going out of business. I'm just not surprised of their losses and inflated valuation
 
eon said:
Amazon actually provides a valuable service and isnt some gimmick site who's value is based on popularity over actual money making viability
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I'm not a Groupon fanboy and I have no idea how their business model works, I was just pointing out this doesn’t mean they are going belly up.

I will say I’ve had a couple good Groupons in the past. There was the half off Round Table Pizza, and $15.00 Ebay gift certificate for $7.00.
 
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