Groupon hits a billion dollar valuation.
Groupon the Chicago based coupon/discount company yesterday announced that they had completed at raise at a $1.35 billion valuation.
Always nice to be proved right though, I have been ranting to anyone who will listen for the past three years about discount vouchers and I think that Groupon are only scratching the surface.
So what do they do?
Groupon is a combination of the words group and coupon. Each day, we offer an unbeatable deal on the best of Your City: restaurants, spas, sporting events, theater, and more. By promising businesses a minimum number of customers, we get discounts you won’t find anywhere else. We call it “collective buying power.”
They have helped sell some really incredible numbers of items, 1600 sky diving lessons anyone?
A good example of Groupon in real world is todays special for Local4 a Toronto based Bar and restaurant,Groupon users are able to buy $40 worth of beer and food for $16 (405 of them have already)
“Groupon generally takes 30% – 50% of the total price paid for the service, and they are on track, they say, to do $100 million in gross merchandise sales in 2010″
Groupon Dublin anyone?
Learn How Groupon Works! from The Point on Vimeo.
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The potential is massive for location sensitive smart-phones and the like to instantly tap into this sort of movement.
I think that this, along with Yowza could do very well in Dublin.
While I agree I still think Americans are far more responsive to coupons than say the Irish and/ or Europeans. For example coupons are part of grocery shopping in the states and the idea is part of the American sense of getting value.
As for Ireland, I think say a web-based Groupon clone would be great to promote Dublin offers but if it was tied to say NFC tags (think ZapaTag) then you could offer this as a national “local deals” platform.
Aside: I am totally amazed nobody is doing this for mobile (java app integrated with SMS coupons). This would be huge in emerging and developing countries where retail presence is limited by geography, turnover and scale.
I think this is a brilliant example of a business (or business generator!) driven by social networking.
I do agree with the comment of Laura Daly that Irish people are not as coupon-savvy as the US public but a combination of the economic climate and the slick presentation by Groupon would, in my opinion, win people over. Especially, the 20 & 30 something’s who were used to more financial freedom and the associated trappings… this could be a valid way to get some of those things back!!
Would there be enough demand to sustain a Dublin model? An Ireland-wide effort not be specific enough but there is certainly a case for major European cities. I wonder if they do anything with ferries!!!!
Pretty impressive to say the least.
I’ve come across an Irish version of this called Sinirgy.com, its quite new but it seems to be doing well in that it managed to sell out its first two promotions. Also came across another one called promozebra, don’t think it has really taken off though
Great concept emphasizes the concept of the power of the crowd..fertile ground for group powered web sites.
I think the app idea is ripe for expoitation and may be worth a pitch at the forthcoming startupweekend in Dublin.
I have a stupendously compelling business model for a mobile app that merges Groupon-like coupon deals with radio and TV advertising.
Please contact @visionlab if you are interested in talking. I am especially keen to find a partner with experience in the advertising world.
lots going on in this space include Groupon competitor LivingSocial raising $44m! http://ow.ly/1ELYq