Despite downward trend, Groupon revenue grew 13 percent in August

By Andrew Couts Published September 12, 2011

Groupon wins — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Things may be looking up for daily deals giant Groupon, after all. According to Alexia Tsotsis at TechCrunch, the daily deals company gained 2 percent market share during the month of August, and saw its revenue surge 13 percent, increasing its revenue from $106 million in July to $120.7 million in August. The company’s financial data comes via daily deals aggregator, Yipit, which analysed 30,000 daily deal offers, from a variety of companies, last month.

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The increase in incoming cash is due to a 10 percent jump in the number of Groupons sold on each deal, as well as a 5 percent increase in the average price of the deals Groupon offers, Yipit’s data shows. Groupon’s travel offering, Groupon Getaways, saw its revenue grow substantially, from $5.7 million in July to $9.6 million in August, which accounted for 27percent of Groupon’s overall growth for the month.

August wasn’t entirely a winning month for Groupon, however. As we reported last week, the number of deals actually fell `14 percent (though the cost of the deals went up).

This troublesome trend comes just as Groupon was forced to delay its IPO due to an unpredictable stock market environment — or, at least, that’s the “official” reason given by the company. Some believe, however, that the delay may be due to a Securities and Exchange Commission investigation over an internal company memo that may have violated the SEC’s rules.

The company originally planned to go public immediately following Labor Day.

The complications around Groupon’s finances began this summer, when the company decided to use non-standard accounting practices in its IPO filing with the SEC.

LivingSocial, Groupon’s closest competitor, had a 3 percent dip in revenue last month, from $46.4 million in July to $45.1 million. The daily deal market grew 9 percent overall, jumping to $228 million for August, versus $208 million in July.

View the full Yipit report below:

Yipit August 2011 Report (09!10!11 Draft) Copy 2

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Features Editor for Digital Trends, Andrew Couts covers a wide swath of consumer technology topics, with particular focus on…

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