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kleinbl00 · 4772 days ago · link · · parent · post: Groupon has spent about as much on advertising this year as Visa and Time Warner Cable.
I've seen any number of small retailers refer to Groupon as "crack." As in, something that gives you a quick rush of business but doesn't make you any money and the people never come back.
The real problem is that in order to be profitable in the long run they'd have to dominate their sphere. I'm already getting groupon-like offers from Amazon, and I'm already getting groupon-like offers from Google. I'm pretty sure both Amazon and Google are playing with it to see if there's any point, but either one of them could annihilate Groupon without breaking a sweat. The only strategy that makes any sense for a Groupon investor is hoping Yahoo or eBay pays way the fuck too much for it in a desperation move because they were too stupid or lazy to come up with something like it or "as good as it" on their own, a-la Paypal, only without Groupon being the dominant piece of the market. That said, it's trading at bloody 26 right now.