25% of Groupon share value WIPED OUT after rates slashed

Groupon lost a quarter of its market value yesterday after it admitted it was taking a smaller cut of revenue on its coupons to keep retailers interested. The daily deals bazaar's stock dropped 24.78 per cent yesterday to $5.98 after its fourth quarter results were once again a disappointment to investors. Critics have been …

[Khaptain]

Soap bubble

Somewhere far away in never-never land another ephemeral bubble has just gone "pwoooooff".

If I didn't see Groupons' name being mentioned on El Reg from time to time I would never even know that they still exist.

[JDX]

Re: Soap bubble

Revenues of $600million suggest they are hardly marginalised just yet.

[JeevesMkII]

Re: Soap bubble

You too could attract revenues of 600 million doing almost anything if you were allowed to spend a billion to get them. Revenue does not a sustainable business make.

[LarsG]

This was forecast

This was forecast when they started, an unsustainable business model that does not make profit but increases losses year after year.

One interesting thought, how much do those at the top put in their pockets, bet the directors are getting nice bonuses and drive expensive cars. Still when it fails I am sure they will be protected, but I bet those who had already bought vouchers and the businesses that bought into the scheme will be the ones out of pocket.

[Anonymous Coward]

How it starts

Restaurant Business sets up but after a year takings are down.

January to March, free bottle of wine with your meal

March to May, buy one meal get the other half price

May to June, buy one meal get the other free

June to August, 2x meals for £10

August to October, 2x 2 course meal £10 (hope they don't just ask for a glass of water)

October to December, GROUPON vouchers

January BUST.

[Danny 14]

has anyone used groupon in the uk? Ive never found anything of use on there (primarily because our city isnt listed). Searching for coupons in places I am visiting brings up the same tat that you see in motorway service booklets.

[JDX]

There are good deals although often they are similar to deals you can get through food club memberships or mailing lists. Once in a while something good comes along.

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes, but why use Groupon when you can use a search engine. It's similar to looking for something in only 1 book, when you could use an entire library. And that library is of course, rapidly searched and indexed.

If you can't find deals via search engines, you have problems.

[Anonymous Coward]

My wife uses it on occasion, much to my annoyance. I don't like eating out on vouchers. There are enough restaurants nearby offering walk-in deals of similar value and at least then I'm giving 100% of the money to the restaurant on their terms instead of whatever fraction Groupon gives them. I joke with her that she's killing restaurants because several have gone out of business soon after.

Selling vouchers to freeloaders does not generate repeat business and places which do it are obviously getting desperate. About the only businesses which can sustain this model are "services", car washes, eyebrow plucking etc. where there are few expenses. They can charge any bullshit price they like for their service pretend to "discount" it, give Groupon their cut and still walk away with money. That's why once Groupon has slashed and burned through a territory, all that's left is a wasteland of these crap offers.

[grantmasterflash]

You're not killing restaurants by using a coupon that the RESTAURANT put out! A groupon is no different than the restaurant employee standing on the corner handing out promo coupons to get you to go there.

You act like Groupon is forcing businesses to use them. I use Groupons (and Goldstar, Livingsocial, Amazon Local etc.) to try NEW restaurants. If the restaurant turns out to be crap I'm not out much. If it turns out wonderful I eat there regularly. A couple of my favorite restaurants that I frequent regularly I found through Groupon.

Some people are uncomfortable using a coupon that they PAID for and the restaurant PAID Groupon to promote. They seem to think they're accepting some sort of charity. Some people are not very bright.

[Code Monkey]

The last thing I saw on there was that colonic treatment someone passed on for larks.

55% off a hose up the jacksy ... where do I sign up?

[Joe K]

Obvious

The few business owners i know who've used Groupon all regret it, never again.

More trouble than its worth, with lots of leechers trying to take advantage, phone going all day, fraud attempts, etc.

[Andrew Moore]

Re: Obvious

Liewise. And zero after-sales support once they have you signed on too. It's a case of "we have your money now, screw you!"

[Turtle]

@Andrew Moore: Re: Obvious

"Liewise"

Couldn't agree more.

[Roland6]

Re: Obvious

The few business owners I know who've used Groupon walked in with their eyes open and have got a lot out of it. But then they were selling 'experiences' so to them the cost of Groupon was relatively small, as they were incurring the overheads anyway.

In fact two of the business'es used the business drummed up by Groupon to train staff ie. to provide sufficient teaching hours for them to become fully qualified instructors!

But they all made sure that they got hold of the Groupon users contact details and hence were able to offer specific follow up offers etc.

[Anonymous Coward]

"25% of Groupon share value WIPED OUT" - what is the Daily Mail? A 25% fall in the share price is bad, but matching it with WIPED OUT in capitals is just dishonest.

[rd232]

"What is this, the Daily Mail?" - no edit button. Cool.

[Ian Johnston]

Bet you wish

you'd posted the followup as AC too!

[Neill Mitchell]

Re: Bet you wish

The Sun would have gone with "Scorn poured on Groupon coupon"

[Destroy All Monsters]

Re: Bet you wish

rd232, you fail harder than r2d2

[rd232]

Re: Bet you wish

No, I don't know how the box was ticked the first time...

[Anonymous Coward]

"A 25% fall in the share price is bad, but matching it with WIPED OUT in capitals is just dishonest"

Well unless you're challenging the common method of valuing listed companies on the basis of total equity times latest marginal price from trading, then 25% of their value was indeed wiped out.

Theorists may claim that the value is the sum of discounted future cash flows (or similar techniques), but in the real world value is simply the price the highest bidder is willing to pay and the vendor is willing to accept, so I'd suggest that the tabloid capitalisation aside, the orginal headline was entirely accurate.

[That one over there]

Dirty

I've used it a couple of times, but not for ages. It was all rather painless but it just gives me a dirty feeling using it, it's obvioulsy a loss leader for the merchants and seems to be just another way of grabbing customer data.

I got my first bit of junkmail this monring to an e-mail address registered only with Groupon so the app has just got binned and unsubscribed from the emails that I didnt read any more anyway.

P.

[Longrod_von_Hugendong]

WTF...

El Reg is basically the Daily Mail with added computers - if you didnt know that, then you are really in the wrong place.

[Destroy All Monsters]

Re: WTF...

There is no page three, I am disappoint!

[Rukario]

Re: WTF...

I find El Reg more like an IT-centric Private Eye, with the graun's Comment Is Free thrown in.

[MrJonno]

Great for the consumer awful for the end business. If I can get a meal for £20 with groupon do restuarants seriously think I'm going to go back for the same meal for £40 on the basis that £20 one was that good. Maybe some people work that way but I don't

[Dave 62]

What confuses me is that with groupon the punter gets a discount, so the restaurant/salon/life style club gets less money, then groupon take a cut so the restaurant/salon/lifestyle club gets even less money. Perhaps the restaurant/salon/lifestyle club would be better off offering their food/beautification/life style at a lower cost to start with???

Pint because we need some no-nonsense bloke-down-the-pub logic.

[Keith 21]

That's all well and good IF price is the ONLY factor.

Which, usually, it isn't.

Suppose Dave62 runs the best restaurant in the area with the best food ever, at the most reasonable prices.

That means nothing if people don't know about you.

You can halve your prices, won't get you any more customers if nobody knows about you.

So you advertise via a Groupin offer which naturally sells out.

Suddenly your restaurant is full for a month. Yeah, you make less than full price per table, but that is way more than you made on that same yet empty table the month before.

Wil most Grouponites return?

Probably not.

BUT for that month your place was busy, packed. And news like that travels it must have been packed for a reason. If everyone else is going, perhaps "I" ought to go.

Which I do.

And discover a bloody good restaurant which I frequent and introduce friends to.

Now you have more customers, regulars, than you did before.

Is that not worthwhile?

And as for paying lots to Groupin and people not paying £40 for a meal they got for £20 last time?

Piss easy one!

Your Groupon meal is not a normal menu option, it's a limited Groupon special. At a special price.

They notice when glancing at the menu that there are some bargains.

And the food was great, so maybe next time they are in the area...

Sure, not every Grouponite becomes a customer. Nobody is claiming they do.

However, when run properly by someone who knows what they are doing, a Groupon offe can be a very effective marketing tool.

When run properly. Therein lies the rub...

[The Nazz]

Here you go, a Groupon Coupon for ...

50% off a Paragraph Writing Course.

[Robert Ramsay]

"Since adopting the leaf as legal tender..."

"...we have all ofc become extremely rich..."

[Rukario]

Re: "Since adopting the leaf as legal tender..."

"But we have run into a small inflationary problem, owing to the high level of leaf availability. So I gather the going rate is something like 3 major deciduous forests to buy one ship's peanut. So to obviate this problem, and effectively revalue the leaf, I propose we take on a massive campaign of defoliation and, burn down all the forests."

(No doubt someone will correct me on Jon Glover's lines here.)

Proof indeed that Groupon is the brainchild of B Ark survivors.

[JoeF]

Mason fired

And CEO Andrew Mason got fired over the bad numbers.

Groupon's dead (actually it was already dead, regardless of the firing of Mason.)

[LinkOfHyrule]

Just been on there to look at todays best deals...

...same old stuff really: 50% off a fish foot-spa treatment, 70% off a 'celebrity experience' evening at a top London night club with Alan Tichmarsh, 65% off gastric bypasses... but what really caught my eye was this: 25% off Groupon shares!

Seems like a good deal to me!

[Radiodoc]

Groupons - a one-time visit.

Here's some speil from today's (Friday 1st March) HONG KONG Groupon offers :

$328 H2O MOP® Steam Cleaner, $388 w/ Delivery, Disinfects & Cleans Floors, Carpets, Windows, Cars w/ Ease (Valued up to $1359)

G ypsies, magicians, and genies in bottles can disappear in a puff of smoke, as if they were never really there to begin with. Show dirt and bacteria a little magic trick of your own with today’s Groupon.

& another - at random :-

$298 German-Made Sanitas Automatic Blood Pressure Monitor w/ WHO Classification for Safe & Accurate Measurements (Valued at $598)

Without accurate, finely-tuned equipment, people would be forced to judge blood pressure by measuring the amount of steam pouring out of their ears. Keep explosive pressure under control with today’s Groupon.

Personally, I wonder about the sanity of the copywriters!

As a matter of fact, my family DO make use of Groupons.

I got a nice a/b/g/n Router for HK$598 - saving $300, and numerous "foodie" discounts.

BUT I have never been back to buy the same foods or electrical items at full retail price.