It's amazing to me how far Groupon has fallen recently. I'm curious to see if investors file lawsuits against the founders for misappropriation of funds given that the founders took so much money off the table.
Google has been throwing shit against the wall for many years and most of it hasn't stuck and their core product, search, is still 95% of their business (and they're a juggernaut). I view Facebook in the same light. They are the dominate social network and have by far the most users. Right now they are throwing shit against the wall to see what sticks but it doesn't really matter. They've already earned the eyes and ears of almost 1 billion people and they will not fade soon.
I think Yelp has always been a good service but obviously there is a disconnect between the business end of Yelp and the service end. The Chicago Tribune article is not the first to complain about the business practices of Yelp. Additionally, advertising on Yelp is some of the most expensive real estate on the web with CPM rates of $100-$300. Ultimately I think that directory sites such as Yelp will become obsolete as social search becomes more refined and relevant. My company is actually working on this and we thing that we have a good product so far (in alpha). http://www.cliqsearch.com
Cliq is a big data company focused on social search. We are a small group and currently have 3 great developers. We need DBs, dataminers and architects to help us scale the company as we're dealing with billions of data points and social edges. We're free spirited and funded company and you can check out an Alpha version of our site at http://www.cliqsearch.com.
The difference between your example and the Steve Jobs anecdote is that one is backend and the other is customer facing. Getting all of the details right for the customer is paramount for him but I doubt he would fret over the minute details on the backend.
Indeed; iTunes was a complete POS as a piece of commercial music managing software, and with a little focus _very_ easily fixed. He didn't seem to care about that too much.
The business model of Groupon is eerily similar to that of the US. Use current cash/bonds to fund payables and hope that it doesn't get out of control. For the US it already has but at least the US can raise the debt ceiling and print more money... something that Groupon can not do.
Look at it from a different perspective. Is Groupon now going back to old applicants because they're having trouble recruiting new talent? Groupon hasn't exactly been a cinderella in the news lately with their phony accounting metrics and questionable concerns about the viability of their business. Perhaps they have outgrown their employment base. Hard to imagine considering above 9% unemployment but just a thought.
I have to think it can't be that bad a place to work; they at least have a good sense of humor. April Fools' before last they did this awesome parody of Gilt: http://www.groupoupon.com/
I'm in this business and I routinely hear from my sales staff that merchants who have done a deal with Groupon, want to do a second deal but never get a call back. Also once the deal is inked the sales person goes silent. I know there is a lot of turnover with the sales team there but more often than not we hear of a lack of relationship building at Groupon but rather "pump and dump".
Some great points in the article and I agree that Livingsocial is better all around than Groupon, not only from a merchant perspective but also with innovation and creativity in the group buying space.
At the same time I believe that daily deals are unsustainable for the large crowd that is out there. Groupon and living social will survive but many will die. My company is providing an innovative solution that complements daily deals and is another good source for marketing.
At Zooyan.com we are creating a marketplace for deals where people can go and search for or browse 100s of ongoing offers near them. All of the offers last on average for 6 months and provide similar discounts to daily deals. We allow customers the ability to buy what they want, when they want it and we allow merchants to have a long term marketing source that provides consistent and manageable sales. I'd love to know what others think. Www.zooyan.com
