The point is that its not real success, its fake success propped up by massive funding rounds and there are numbers to back it up. Note that their ARPU (for cus

The point is that its not real success, its fake success propped up by massive funding rounds and there are numbers to back it up. Note that their ARPU (for customers) is less than their marketing cost. Fixing this # before growing is what Clayton Christensen is talking about when he says "impatient for profit but patient for growth". Groupons unit economics suck and they're not getting better. Revenue and subscriber growth The median number of Groupons sold to each Groupon customer (someone who has bought anything): 1. The median number of Groupons sold to each person on Groupon’s mailing list: 0. Subscribers and acquisition cost Percentage of mailing list who has purchased even one Groupon: 20%. Cost per new list subscriber: $5.37. Cost per new customer: $24.08. Real revenue per subscriber: $3.43. Real revenue per customer: $17.55 (less than acquisition cost — keep in mind most people buy only 1). Real revenue per Groupon sold: $10.49 (less than acquisition cost). Amount spent on marketing, full year 2010: $241.5 million. Amount spent on marketing, first half of 2011: $345.1 million. Source: http://blog.agrawals.org/2011/08/15/the-terrible-numbers-that-groupon-doesnt-want-you-to-focus-on/ http://blog.agrawals.org/2011/08/15/the-terrible-numbers-tha...