Saturday, December 4, 2010

What's the Deal?

Since its start in 2008, Groupon has enjoyed a colossus growth in popularity and revenue. According to Forbes Magazine, this deal-of-the-day website is the “Fastest Growing Company Ever”, being valued at $1.35 billion this year.
How does it work? As other deal-of-day websites, Group on offers daily a discount on products, services or events, with limited time and limited quantities. Buying the coupon is not enough. It is necessary to meet a certain quota of customers, which varies from deal to deal depending on the nature of the product offered. If the required amount of people buys the deal, you get your discount.
Sounds good. Personally, the only thing I can argue is why only one deal per day? My possible explanation: that is the best way to keep you checking the site continuously. I joined Groupon on August and every time I enter the website I discover I lost an opportunity I could really use…or maybe I wouldn’t use, but it sounded tempting. And that might be the real deal for Groupon, opening the door for you to all those things you don’t need or like…but God, they are cheap!
Another reason might be that they have to ensure the sale of the coupon. More than one deal per day would deviate the attention of customers in different directions, and any transaction would be sealed.
The company has also grown in importance. In its short trajectory, Groupon has made partnerships with important brands as Gap and received a very juicy offer of $6 billion from Google (not a good deal for Groupon). The company will continue developing independent for now, its only combustible…our consumption impulse.