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I apologize if I'm missing some blatant sarcasm, but could you elaborate? All of the points in the article (which I'm hoping you read) seem valid. Groupon has

I apologize if I'm missing some blatant sarcasm, but could you elaborate? All of the points in the article (which I'm hoping you read) seem valid. Groupon has never felt like a good deal at even half it's current share price. To me, it seems like a company who got lucky through a serendipitous combination of our "bubble 2.0" frenzy, great marketing, and cherry-picked success stories. I really want to understand what I'm missing. Why is Groupon this titan of deal sites? Is is their color scheme? Is the technology behind their site so amazing that other companies can't conceive of them? Are Facebook and Google too stupid to come up with a decent competing product? Is it brand recognition? Is it because they have Derrick on their unsubscribe page? Please help me understand.

pbreit 14y ago
You don't understand massive revenues, massive growth, massive cash on hand? You don't understand how valuable it is to have cracked one of the hardest industries: local advertising? You don't understand how much it has diversified its business? In order: because it is the best and the biggest. No, stupid question. No, it's not a technical play, it's a marketing and execution play (like most things). Yes, as we have seen. Yes. No, but that is representative of clever culture. You need way more help than I can provide.
- tptacek 14y ago
  Do we really need to pretend that this article is worth driving to the top of HN with a long discussion about the merits of Groupon, or can we just recognize an cynical, intellectually bankrupt attempt at grabbing pageviews by stirring the pot for what it is? This was a thoroughly stupid article, no matter what you think of Groupon.