

ReadWriteWeb DeathWatch: Groupon - Geeek
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/readwriteweb-deathwatch-groupon.php

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tptacek
No.

See? Now you don't even have to read this article. You're welcome.

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rubberband
I apologize if I'm missing some blatant sarcasm, but could you elaborate? All
of the points in the article (which I'm hoping you read) seem valid.

Groupon has _never_ felt like a good deal at even half it's current share
price. To me, it seems like a company who got lucky through a serendipitous
combination of our "bubble 2.0" frenzy, great marketing, and cherry-picked
success stories.

I really want to understand what I'm missing. Why is Groupon this titan of
deal sites? Is is their color scheme? Is the technology behind their site so
amazing that other companies can't conceive of them? Are Facebook and Google
too stupid to come up with a decent competing product? Is it brand
recognition? Is it because they have Derrick on their unsubscribe page? Please
help me understand.

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pbreit
You don't understand massive revenues, massive growth, massive cash on hand?
You don't understand how valuable it is to have cracked one of the hardest
industries: local advertising? You don't understand how much it has
diversified its business? In order: because it is the best and the biggest.
No, stupid question. No, it's not a technical play, it's a marketing and
execution play (like most things). Yes, as we have seen. Yes. No, but that is
representative of clever culture. You need way more help than I can provide.

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tptacek
Do we really need to pretend that this article is worth driving to the top of
HN with a long discussion about the merits of Groupon, or can we just
recognize an cynical, intellectually bankrupt attempt at grabbing pageviews by
stirring the pot for what it is?

This was a thoroughly stupid article, no matter what you think of Groupon.

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raganwald
A faintly warmed-over rehash of arguments we’ve discussed many times on HN,
without depth or fresh perspective. Worth reading if you’ve never read
anything about their business model before. Otherwise, pass.

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tptacek
Worth reading? "Is Groupon about to die? Yes! See: here's a video of Andy
Mason doing yoga in his underwear."

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netcan
What always struck me about Groupon is nothing to do about vendor complaints.
If that was going to kill them it would have manifested as failing demand.
It's a kind of no one goes there, too crowded argument.

The problem was/is almost the opposite, competition. I never saw, understood
Groupons sustainable competitive advantage, especially in new markets/cities.
They're obviously competent, but they are _so_ easy to copy. $10k site, $100k
ad campaign, 3 salespeople and you have a Groupon clone ready to compete in
any city. We have a Groupon clone in the building I work in.

Anyway (getting to the actual content of this article), GRPN‎ & FB seem to
have something in common, at least to the extent that this article is correct.
By IPO time all the value was already taken off the table.

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pbreit
You would think that with 100s of failed efforts to copy that people would not
be making this argument any more. It is obviously extremely difficult to copy
and there's a very big scale advantage (deals go where the eyeballs are,
eyeballs go where the deals are). And I don't think Groupon has capitalized
too well on that as the deals have become incredibly generic (like the
photography is not even business-specific).

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netcan
Also 100s of successes. Also a bunch that are a success for a while and then
fail for a while. Exactly how you expect a market with low entry barriers to
behave.

There are lots of cities where Groupon are one of several similar sized sites.

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pbreit
With the "Macbook Boondoggle" article and now this I have to wonder what the
heck is going on at RWW? Is there any quality control about what articles go
up? Any editing process at all?

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msg
Wizard... is about to die

The interesting point: the couponing market is saturated, so Groupon must grow
into new markets or find new products for its existing systems and software.

I wouldn't bet on this kind of metamorphosis. A slow death spiral is more
likely as Groupon runs out of room to maneuver.

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wkdown
TIL Amazon has its own version (local.amazon.com)

