headquarters chicago illinois u.s.a area served global founder s andrew mason eric lefkofsky brad keywell chairman eric lefkofsky ceo rich williams industry electronic commerce revenue us 3.2 billion 2014 1 employees 10 000 2013 2 website www.groupon.com alexa rank 267 august 2015 update 3 type of site online deal marketplace launched november 2008 current status active native client s on ios watchos android windows phone groupon is an american worldwide e commerce marketplace connecting millions of subscribers with local merchants by offering activities travel goods and services in more than 28 countries . based in chicago groupon was launched in november 2008 and the first market for groupon was chicago followed soon thereafter by boston new york city and toronto . by october 2010 groupon was available in 150 cities in north america and 100 cities in europe asia and south america and had 35 million registered users . 4 5 6 7 by the end of march 2015 groupon served more than 500 cities worldwide nearly 48.1 million active customers and featured more than 425 000 active deals globally . 8 the idea for groupon was created by now ousted ceo and pittsburgh native 9 andrew mason . 10 the idea subsequently gained the attention of his former employer eric lefkofsky who provided 1 million in seed money to develop the idea . in april 2010 the company was valued at 1.35 billion . 11 according to a december 2010 report conducted by groupon s marketing association and reported in forbes magazine and the wall street journal groupon was projecting that the company is on pace to make 1 billion in sales faster than any other business ever . 9 in its first earnings release as a public company groupon reported a 2011 fourth quarter loss of 9.8 million on an adjusted basis disappointing investors . 12 additional investor concern arose after the company restated 2011 revenues downward in march 2012 . 13 contents 1 history 1.1 early history 1.2 2011 onward 1.3 acquisitions and partnerships 2 business 2.1 business model 2.2 geographic markets 2.3 competitors 2.3.1 direct 2.3.2 indirect 2.4 financials 2.5 groupon now application 2.6 groupon promise 2.7 groupon vip 2.8 groupon merchantos 3 reception 3.1 super bowl commercial 3.2 violation of gift certificate expiration laws 3.3 initial public offering filing 3.4 massachusetts alcoholic beverages control commission 3.5 uk office of fair trading investigation 3.6 live off groupon 3.7 presence in china 3.8 media related 4 references 5 external links history edit early history edit the idea that would eventually become groupon was born out of founder andrew mason s frustration trying to cancel a cell phone contract in 2006 . mason thought that there must be some way to leverage large number of people s collective bargaining power . in 2007 mason launched the point a web platform based on the tipping point principle that would utilize social media to get people together to accomplish a goal . the point was intended to organize people around some sort of cause or goal . it gained only modest traction in chicago until a group of users decided their cause would be saving money . they wanted to round up people to buy the same product in order to receive a group discount . founder eric lefkofsky wanted the company to pivot in order to focus entirely on group buying . born from the point groupon was launched in november 2008 . 14 15 16 the name groupon is a blend of group and coupon . groupon s first deal was a half price offer for pizzas at motel bar a restaurant on the first floor of its building in chicago . 9 17 the decision to focus on group buying proved wise . in just a year and a half groupon grew from a staff of a few dozen to over 350 . revenue and booking also grew swiftly and the company was valued at over 1 billion after just 16 months in business the fastest company ever to reach this milestone . 18 fueled by its rapid growth groupon went public on november 4 2011 . it was the biggest ipo by an internet company since google in 2004 . 19 2011 onward edit prior to the company s fifth anniversary the groupon website was completely redesigned and new features were added in november 2013 . according to the svp of product management the original website was designed for a deal of the day and the new site is designed for a marketplace . following the website relaunch the company rewarded a random selection of one million customers on november 20 2013 with up to us 5 000 worth of groupon bucks . 20 21 groupon recorded record breaking holiday weekend sales in north america during the full black friday through cyber monday weekend of 2014 nov. 28 dec. 21 representing the most successful four days ever in the company s six year history with sales up more than 25 % year over year . black friday and cyber monday were the two biggest days in groupon s north american history . 22 following amazon.com s december announcement on drone delivery groupon reacted with a plan for groupon catapults . 23 on december 29 2014 groupon s shares rose by 1.4 % after it was reported that goldman sachs was weighing an investment in one of the daily deal company s units . 24 groupon named a new chief operating officer on june 2 2015 rich williams and in november williams was named ceo . 25 26 on september 22 2015 groupon announced they would be eliminating approximately 1 100 positions primarily in their sales and customer service operations . 27 as part of this restructure they would be ceasing operations in international markets such as morocco panama philippines puerto rico taiwan thailand and uruguay . in january 2016 groupon signed a lease in seattle for 42 000 square feet of space in the 1201 3rd avenue building in downtown . this creates room for 400 employees up from 300 that groupon currently employs in washington . 28 in may 2016 groupon sued ibm accusing it of infringing a patent related to technology that helps businesses solicit customers based on the customers locations at a given moment . groupon filed its lawsuit on may 9 with the federal court in chicago two months after ibm accused groupon of patent infringement in a separate lawsuit . 29 acquisitions and partnerships edit groupon owns numerous international operations all of which were originally deal of the day services similar to it but most of which were subsequently re branded under the groupon name after acquisition including the european based mycitydeal may 17 2010 the south american clandescuento june 22 2010 the japanese service qpod.jp and russian darberry.ru both acquired on august 17 2010 30 and the singaporean beeconomic.com november 30 2010 which was founded by brothers karl chong and christopher chong . 31 groupon bought the indian deal of the day website sosasta.com in january 2011 and re branded it as crazeal by groupon inc. 32 the groupon acquisitions of ubuyibuy launched services under the groupon name in hong kong . 33 in addition groupon acquired groupsmore.com to expand its business in malaysia . 34 prior to these acquisitions groupon had bought out the mobile technology company mob.ly . the point inc. the predecessor to groupon bought the trademark 35 group ons from its originator in february 2009 under terms which allow the originator and first registrant of the trademark to continue the use of the trademark . on august 4 2011 the company acquired obtiva a large chicago illinois based ruby on rails and agile software development consulting firm for an undisclosed amount in order to boost its technology recruiting capabilities . 36 37 in january 2012 the company acquired mertado a social shopping service based on the facebook platform . 38 in may 2012 groupon acquired breadcrumb a point of sale system and ipad app that targets local restaurants . 39 based on the may acquisition groupon launched breadcrumb pro and breadcrumb pos expanding its target beyond restaurants to include all types of local businesses . 40 on september 24 2012 groupon acquired restaurant reservation and discount site savored for an undisclosed amount providing groupon with an inlet to higher end restaurants . groupon also announced that it would continue to operate savored independently from the main groupon website . 41 in december 2013 groupon acquired boomerang a lightbank backed startup that allows people to share gift cards and other deals from local merchants with their friends . 42 boomerang s two cofounders zachary smith and matthew williams along with eight employees went on to build a new digital coupon offering called groupon coupons . 43 on january 11 2013 groupon acquired real time location sharing mobile app and small business service provider glassmap which was founded and led by geoffrey woo jon zhang and jonathan chang . 44 on september 9 2013 groupon announced acquisition of european last minute travel app blink founded by rebeca minguela which provides same day hotel reservations . 45 on october 2 2014 groupon unveiled snap a new app specifically for giving customers cash back when they buy certain items at the grocery store . snap asks shoppers to upload photos of their receipts after they ve gone to the supermarket to buy groceries . certain items are then eligible for discounts which shoppers receive in the form of a cash back deal . the new app comes from groupon s previous acquisition of snapsaves a canadian start up that works much like snap . 46 in november 2014 groupon acquired in store analytics and marketing startup swarm mobile a startup that helps businesses connect with and track their customers while in stores . 47 in february 2016 chinese online retailer alibaba group holding ltd dosclosed that it acquired a 5.6 % stake in groupon inc. 48 in april 2016 groupon inc. announced it received a 250 million investment from a private investment firm atairos management lp which has ties to comcast corp. the firm was founded by former comcast chief financial officer michael angelakis who launched the firm earlier this year with more than 4 billion in committed capital from comcast . 49 business edit business model edit when it first launched the company offered one groupon per day in each of the markets it served . the groupon worked as an assurance contract using thepoint s platform if a certain number of people signed up for the offer then the deal became available to all ; 50 if the predetermined minimum was not met no one got the deal that day . 9 this reduces risk for retailers who can treat the coupons as quantity discounts 9 as well as sales promotion tools . in the early years before revenue splits began to adjust as necessary groupon made money by keeping approximately half the money the customer pays for the coupon . currently that split can vary depending on many factors . 9 51 52 for example in a 50 50 revenue split if 240 worth of home painting services are purchased by the consumer for 50 through groupon then the business gets 25 and groupon keeps 25 . there are certain businesses to which groupon initially did not offer its services including shooting ranges and strip clubs ; 53 however shooting ranges have been featured on groupon . 54 unlike classified advertising the merchant does not pay any upfront cost to participate 9 consumers are able to search and browse deals via web or mobile and can subscribe to receive emails featuring deals they are interested in based on preferences they input . groupon employs a large number of copywriters 55 who draft descriptions for the deals featured by email and on the website . groupon s promotional text for the deals has been seen as a contributing