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Were any of the Groupon copycats successful? Maybe it just wasn't that good an idea.
by eli 9y ago
Were any of the Groupon copycats successful? Maybe it just wasn't that good an idea.
- pchristensen 9y agoNo. Living Social was the most successful runner up to Groupon. The problem was that "email deal-based marketing for small businesses" was going to be worth something, but there would only be one valuable winner and no one knew how much that would be worth. So Groupon, Living Social, FB, Google, Yelp, and hundreds of clones all threw in tons of money, slogged it out, and now they're all gone and GRPN is worth $2B, 1/8th of its IPO price. Exactly the same thing is happening with ride-hailing now. It's harder to copy, but there's too much investment subsidizing it so no one knows what the market will be worth once riders have to pay sustainable rates. But they know being 2nd place will suck. Citation: I worked at Groupon before and after the IPO.