Britannica Money (2024)

Groupon, American e-commerce company that offers deep discounts, usually 50–90 percent, for popular products and services by using a group discount model. The company’s name is a portmanteau of group and coupon. Groupon was cofounded by Andrew Mason, Eric Lefkofsky, and Brad Keywell in 2008. Headquarters are in Chicago.

Groupon notifies subscribers of daily deals in their chosen home area through e-mail, Facebook posts, Twitter feeds, and mobile phone applications. Offers range from car tune-ups and restaurant purchases to spa packages and theatre tickets. Deals are not official until a predetermined number—which varies on a per-case basis—have been purchased, ensuring that the discount is potentially profitable for the offerer. Subscribers are encouraged to share Groupon offers with their friends via e-mail or social networking sites in order to secure the minimum number of sales. Once an offer has been made official, the customers are charged, and the “groupon” appears in their account. Groupon receives a share of the proceeds, often around half the sale price. Customers may either print out their offers and present them to the merchant or display the vouchers on mobile phones or similar devices. In 2011 Groupon also started offering Groupon Now! deals, which were usually only available for a short span of time on the day of purchase. The site later added sections for purchasing discounted vacations and specific goods.

Groupon evolved from a previous venture of cofounder Mason, a Web site called The Point that determined grassroots interest in and support for given causes. Users expressed support for a given cause via the site but were not asked to donate any time or money to a cause unless a certain amount of interest was achieved—the campaign’s “tipping point.” Mason noted that many of the site’s most successful endeavours brought users together to acquire buying power. With financial backing from Lefkofsky and Keywell, he formed Groupon—originally through getyourgroupon.com—using this knowledge.

Though The Point did not attract enough Web traffic to make the site profitable through advertising or other means, Groupon was a near-instant success, turning a profit just seven months after its creation. Having found success in Chicago, the company quickly expanded to other major cities, covering New York, Boston, and Washington, D.C., within its first six months. Two years after inception Groupon was operating in more than 150 cities in the United States and in more than 30 countries around the world. Critics noted that Groupon posed a threat to consumer loyalty and that smaller businesses could potentially be swamped by customers redeeming offers. However, the business model remained popular, with Groupon’s site claiming more than 30 million offers bought by early 2011 and hundreds of copycat sites springing up around the globe. In November 2011 Groupon raised $700 million through its initial public offering (IPO), the largest by an Internet company since Google Inc.’s $1.66 billion IPO in 2004. The company’s good fortunes were not to last, however, and by August 2012 its stock had plummeted 75 percent. Mason was ousted from his position as CEO in February 2013.