Groupon
Date: 4/13/2015
Group 2
GROUPON
Group Members
Elna Rony
Evangeline Hombal
Jessica Rae Velasquez
Shilpa Karanam
Sumadhuri Kasapuram
Groupon made huge waves in the business world when they first started with their concept. Groupon launched in 2008 with just a few dozen employees to over 350 employees with in a year and a half. Groupon was reported to be worth $1 billion dollars in just 16 months in to the business. When they were just two years old, Groupon surprised the business world by turning down a $6 billion buyout offer by Google. Critics where divided by Groupon’s decision not to sell because virtually vulnerable and they have no barriers to entry. As great as Groupon sounds they are facing a massive problem; their business model is easy to copy. Andrew Mason, the founder and CEO of Groupon estimates that there are over 2000 direct clones worldwide but he insists that there is only a handful there are relevant. The biggest threat to Groupon’s kingdom is LivingSocial, although significantly smaller than Groupon, which raised $40 million since launching in 2009. LivingSocial received its biggest boost when Amazon has decided to invest $175 million into the company. Despite the severe competition, Groupon does not seem concerned because they believe large-scale success demanded a degree of operational sophistication that few could match.
Groupon’s unprecedented growth and success have mainly come from two factors: focus on local merchants and a self-imposed limits to a single promotion each day. This combination helped the company to deal with minimal scale and resources and thus to increase the attractiveness of its initially rather small community. The best choice Groupon made was to establish their business models by cities and offering deals from local merchants has increased their attractiveness for their early subscribers. Many local merchants have tight marketing budgets who are struggle to reach customers found the allure of an outsourced online
Group 2
GROUPON
Group Members
Elna Rony
Evangeline Hombal
Jessica Rae Velasquez
Shilpa Karanam
Sumadhuri Kasapuram
Groupon made huge waves in the business world when they first started with their concept. Groupon launched in 2008 with just a few dozen employees to over 350 employees with in a year and a half. Groupon was reported to be worth $1 billion dollars in just 16 months in to the business. When they were just two years old, Groupon surprised the business world by turning down a $6 billion buyout offer by Google. Critics where divided by Groupon’s decision not to sell because virtually vulnerable and they have no barriers to entry. As great as Groupon sounds they are facing a massive problem; their business model is easy to copy. Andrew Mason, the founder and CEO of Groupon estimates that there are over 2000 direct clones worldwide but he insists that there is only a handful there are relevant. The biggest threat to Groupon’s kingdom is LivingSocial, although significantly smaller than Groupon, which raised $40 million since launching in 2009. LivingSocial received its biggest boost when Amazon has decided to invest $175 million into the company. Despite the severe competition, Groupon does not seem concerned because they believe large-scale success demanded a degree of operational sophistication that few could match.
Groupon’s unprecedented growth and success have mainly come from two factors: focus on local merchants and a self-imposed limits to a single promotion each day. This combination helped the company to deal with minimal scale and resources and thus to increase the attractiveness of its initially rather small community. The best choice Groupon made was to establish their business models by cities and offering deals from local merchants has increased their attractiveness for their early subscribers. Many local merchants have tight marketing budgets who are struggle to reach customers found the allure of an outsourced online