4 ms·

Is anything LivingSocial did something to be proud of? It seems like the majority of those who invested in or did business with LivingSocial suffered greatly. T

Is anything LivingSocial did something to be proud of? It seems like the majority of those who invested in or did business with LivingSocial suffered greatly. That's fine, sometimes things don't work out, but I don't know why you'd brag about it. "millions of consumers around the world have experienced their local cities because of our products" Sounds like he is reaching, just a bit...

eclipticplane 14y ago
> "millions of consumers around the world have experienced their local cities because of our products" I think its a fair assessment, but not the full story. Millions of people did do things they wouldn't normally do. No way in hell I'm going to pay $200 for a family "dolpin tour" where you usually don't see dolphins, but when it's on LivingSocial (or similar sites) for $50? Sure, why not. Now, whether it was a boon or bust for local businesses or not is a debated topic. I'm pretty sure that dolphin tour place actually lost money on my trip, or came close to break-even at most, and we were one time customers.
- rhizome 14y ago
  Not to mention that a normal, no-dolphins-promised boat ride may be less than $50 undiscounted anyway.
- alxbrun 14y ago
  Really weird for a dolphin tour business to do a coupon deal... How on earth would somebody become a regular customer of a dolphin tour ?
  - jazzyb 14y ago
    I would imagine they're hoping the people using the coupons have a good time and then tell their friends about it, and the tour gains more money through word-of-mouth.
  - steveklabnik 14y ago
    Exactly.
minimaxir 14y ago
They had revenue, which can't be said about most big startups nowadays. Profit is another story, though.
deleted 14y ago
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doktrin 14y ago
If I had co-founded LivingSocial, I would not have considered the last n years of my life wasted, nor do I believe the majority of contributors here would either.
- jinushaun 14y ago
  I would be so lucky to have cofounded a company like LS. My score so far is zero.
vicks711 14y ago
Agree with you. LivingSocial ran a big "spam" ad campaign targeted towards India in 2011. They would show ads online asking users to sign up to check deals in local cities. After signing up one would find that LivingSocial was not serving ANY Indian city. It seems the objective of the campaign was to collect e-mail ids.

eclipticplane 14y ago

> "millions of consumers around the world have experienced their local cities because of our products" I think its a fair assessment, but not the full story. Millions of people did do things they wouldn't normally do. No way in hell I'm going to pay $200 for a family "dolpin tour" where you usually don't see dolphins, but when it's on LivingSocial (or similar sites) for $50? Sure, why not. Now, whether it was a boon or bust for local businesses or not is a debated topic. I'm pretty sure that dolphin tour place actually lost money on my trip, or came close to break-even at most, and we were one time customers.

rhizome 14y ago
Not to mention that a normal, no-dolphins-promised boat ride may be less than $50 undiscounted anyway.
alxbrun 14y ago
Really weird for a dolphin tour business to do a coupon deal... How on earth would somebody become a regular customer of a dolphin tour ?
- jazzyb 14y ago
  I would imagine they're hoping the people using the coupons have a good time and then tell their friends about it, and the tour gains more money through word-of-mouth.
- steveklabnik 14y ago
  Exactly.

minimaxir 14y ago

They had revenue, which can't be said about most big startups nowadays. Profit is another story, though.

deleted 14y ago

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doktrin 14y ago

If I had co-founded LivingSocial, I would not have considered the last n years of my life wasted, nor do I believe the majority of contributors here would either.

jinushaun 14y ago
I would be so lucky to have cofounded a company like LS. My score so far is zero.

vicks711 14y ago

Agree with you. LivingSocial ran a big "spam" ad campaign targeted towards India in 2011. They would show ads online asking users to sign up to check deals in local cities. After signing up one would find that LivingSocial was not serving ANY Indian city. It seems the objective of the campaign was to collect e-mail ids.