
The Story Of Groupon: From Failure To An Industry-Changing, Profit Machine - AndrewWarner
http://mixergy.com/andrew-mason-groupon-interview/
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siculars
Another good interview from Andrew at Mixergy. What is interesting here is how
Andrew Mason, founder of Groupon, describes the idea of collective action and
then applying that to commerce, what he calls social commerce. A good takeaway
at that point is that the concept of collective action is far from exploited
in the market place. Groupon exploits this concept in the commerce space but
you could see that the idea has legs.

I like how Andrew Mason owns up to a mistake, around ~47min in, regarding a
company they bought in Brazil that was creating discounts just to test the
market without actually landing those deals. Good on him. Looks like they are
going through some growing pains.

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garply
I'm very curious to know the experience of business owners who've used Groupon
- I've just made a post questioning its value at
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1490096>. I'd love to get HN's feedback
on whether or not we should use the service.

~~~
silvia77
Never used Groupon, but you might want to try emailing/calling some of the
Retailers that have used Groupon in the smaller cities and see firsthand how
effective it is.

Might be hard to find a "Retail Owner" here on HN.

~~~
garply
Thanks - that's a great idea. I actually am friends with the operator of one
of these clones and she herself has expressed that it might hold dubious value
for most business owners. I will try to hunt down some retailers offline
who've actually worked with them.

