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That's my primary reason for not believing this story. I just can't think of a plausible reason Google would want them. Their technology is laughably simple to
by seldo 16y ago
That's my primary reason for not believing this story. I just can't think of a plausible reason Google would want them. Their technology is laughably simple to replicate and combined with Google's existing advertiser relationships would be much more powerful -- this seems like a clear case of build, not buy (especially when the purchase price is so steep).
- greendestiny 16y agoI can think of one. They could bring Groupon into Adwords and sell deals directly from searches. The auction mechanics of Adwords might work well with Groupon. Of course this would rely on Groupon working purely automatically - if it required any kind of business relationships and customer service (like it does now) then Google would kill it.
- notahacker 16y agoSure automating the process of selling discount vouchers might well work, but they don't need to buy Groupon to be able to create discount vouchers based on an adaptation of their own self-service model. They have more access to eyeballs than Groupon's mailing list anyway Much of the value of the company Groupon lies in the sales team, which makes it an uncharacteristic acquisition target for Google.
- greendestiny 16y agoYeah maybe I was trying a bit hard. Though there is also the Groupon brand and concept.
- Mystalic 16y agoAs my entrepreneurial mentor taught me, it's 50% about solving a problem and 50% about figuring out distribution. Groupon's advantage isn't tech, it's massive distribution and thousands of well-trained sales reps with strong relationships in local communities? Do you really think Google could replicate that? It advertiser relationships are definitely not tapped into local communities like Groupon. In fact, that's probably the big reason for the acquisition -- local relationships.
- evbart 16y agoREALLY like that saying about 50% problem 50% distribution. I think you hit it spot on. I see Groupon, yelp, foursquare, all as going after the local space. Some people saw it as a tech problem, some people just looked at it as a distribution problem. GroupOn found the low tech extremely scalable solution, and is reaping the benefits. Companies like Foursquare are probably a couple of years away from having enough businesses do self service on their tech solution...