>What Groupon actually nailed was all the hard parts of the business model that don't look really freaking difficult on the napkin -- particularly "signing up local merchants" and "cost-effective customer acquisition."
I may be misunderstanding what you're saying, but signing up local merchants doesn't seem all that hard. There seem to be many Groupon clones that have produced deals with merchants.
The main problem for the clones is not having Groupon's scale/distribution.
I think what Groupon got right was the simplicity of its offering.
One page that clearly explains what you're getting, at at least 50% off.
When looking at an offering, I see a picture, a short and sometimes funny/interesting description of the offering, short crisp bullet points about restrictions, how many people have bought it, how much time is left, and contact info -- specifically where the place is located.
That's really easy to understand. The user can vote yes or no in a minute or two.
I may be misunderstanding what you're saying, but signing up local merchants doesn't seem all that hard. There seem to be many Groupon clones that have produced deals with merchants.
The main problem for the clones is not having Groupon's scale/distribution.
I think what Groupon got right was the simplicity of its offering.
One page that clearly explains what you're getting, at at least 50% off.
When looking at an offering, I see a picture, a short and sometimes funny/interesting description of the offering, short crisp bullet points about restrictions, how many people have bought it, how much time is left, and contact info -- specifically where the place is located.
That's really easy to understand. The user can vote yes or no in a minute or two.