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Of course we don't have all the variables here, but this doesn't seem like a very good move from an outside observer. If groupon is making hand over fist in cas
by c2 16y ago
Of course we don't have all the variables here, but this doesn't seem like a very good move from an outside observer. If groupon is making hand over fist in cash, and has a healthy cash flow, part of me is wondering why they couldn't use that to steadily finance overseas expansion?
I understand VC's desire to get in on the ground floor of GroupOn's meteoritic growth, but giving them a billion dollars of cash right now doesn't seem like right play here.
Get big fast might of worked for a select few dot coms, but it certainly didn't work as a general rule.
- tomerico 16y agoI can give you an anecdote as an answer Here in Israel, there are dozens of Groupon clones, which are extremely popular. But Groupon isn't here yet. It's a land grab game, and in this business, growing fast matters.
- c2 16y agoGood point. I guess the thing I would caution about is expanding fast vs. executing well. Hopefully they learn the lessons in the Yandex vs. Google and Amazon/Ebay vs. Tao Bao fights. Facebook did execute on a very successful international strategy - but from my understanding they didn't need a billion dollars to do it. GroupOn's economics might be different - time will tell.
- jws 16y agoRemember the facebook world map? http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2002742 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2002742 See the dark area in Russia? Vkontakte got to Russia first.
- djb_hackernews 16y agoLivingSocial, a Groupon competitor, is expanding aggressively. http://livingsocial.com/jobs http://livingsocial.com/jobs
- pchristensen 16y agoThe idea behind Groupon (spending marketing dollars on customers instead of media) is changing the face of commerce worldwide. No matter what Groupon does, that cat is out of the bag. It's up to them to make sure they capture as much of that value as possible. That takes a lot of money but if they succeed, it will be worth it. The chances are not small that Groupon will be a $100B business in a few years.