Groupon IPO back on, set for coming months

By Trevor Mogg September 14, 2011

It was on. Then it was off. Now it appears to be back on again. We’re talking about the Groupon IPO.

The New York Times reported late Wednesday that, according to “people briefed on the matter,” the daily deal giant is planning to go public late October or early November.

Just last week, Groupon announced it was postponing its IPO plans because of unstable stock market conditions. There was also an issue with the Securities and Exchange Commission over an email Groupon chief executive Andrew Mason sent to employees that appeared to violate rules regarding a “quiet period” in the run up to an IPO. According to the NYT source, that problem has been resolved, meaning that the Chicago-based company could begin its roadshow to attract investors as early as the middle of next month.

Groupon must also feel the stock market is settled enough for it to move forward with its IPO, though who knows what might happen in the markets tomorrow, let alone next month.

It’s also possible that the company feels sufficiently buoyed by the news on Monday that it had increased its share of the daily deal market by 2 percent during the month of August, and enjoyed a revenue jump of 13 percent. Its closest rival, LivingSocial, saw a 3 percent dip in revenue for the same period.

Groupon isn’t the only Internet company around which IPO speculation is currently swirling. The NYT reported that Facebook is still fixed on going public in the first six months of next year, despite a Financial Times article that suggested it could be pushed to late 2012.

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Not so many moons ago, Trevor moved from one tea-loving island nation that drives on the left (Britain) to another (Japan)…

Social Media

Anti-trust watchdog fines Groupon Korea for posting fake reviews

Groupon’s South Korean operation has encountered a bit of bother after it was fined by the country’s anti-trust watchdog for putting up fake reviews on its website and exaggerating the number of products bought by consumers.
The incident highlights just how competitive the daily deals industry has become as local rivals in the Asian country, such as Coupang and Ticket Monster, fight Groupon for a share of the market.
The Korea Herald reported on Monday that the country’s Fair Trade Commission (FTC) had fined Groupon’s Korean arm 17 million won ($14,773) for its wrongdoing. It has also ordered the company to put up a notice on its website detailing the penalty for a period of four days.
In a statement relating to the company’s misdemeanor, Groupon Korea said that the disingenuous reviews were put up before August and that it had since taken “corrective measures.”
Three other daily deals websites based in the country have also been fined for claiming to have sold more products than they really had, the FTC said.
Groupon pioneered the daily deals business with its launch in 2008. The Chicago-based company currently operates in 45 countries and employs around 10,000 people.
Earlier this month Groupon went public, raising $700 million in its IPO. However, since then some investors appear to have got cold feet, with its share value last week dropping below its launch price of $20. At the time of writing it stands at $15.24.
The drop has been attributed to a number of factors, including fears of increased competition from rivals such as Amazon-backed LivingSocial and Google Offers.

Web

Gift your unused Groupons with Presentify.me

presentify.me

There are plenty of places to turn to when you want to shed your old Groupons. Sites like DealsGoRound and CoupRecoup have become the Black Market of the daily deals industry, giving consumers a place to profit off their less impressive purchases. But a new site is spinning that into a holiday appropriate idea that puts Grouponicus to shame.
Presentify.me takes your unused Groupons and LivingSocial discounts and pretties them up into gift cards for friends and family. While you can certainly pawn these off without the presentation, that makes it more like an afterthought than a present. But Presentify.me, which is still in beta, creates gorgeous and more formal cards that will keep you from simply printing a coupon out and stuffing it in an envelope.
Daily deal sites are trying to get on the holiday shopping bandwagon with discounted products and prompts telling users to buy experiences as gifts. And while there are plenty out there that would make any recipient happy, the presentation definitely leaves something to be desired. At the moment, Presentify.me is free and working on adding to its current repertoire of three designs. But given the larger discount-a-day sites out there that are trying to make a bid for gifting dollars, and Presentify.me’s initial buzz, we wouldn’t be terribly surprised if the likes of Groupon and LivingSocial were looking into integrating a service like this.

Social Media

How to use social media and save on Small Business Saturday

small business saturday

Between Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and the unending onslaught of online deals, there is another holiday shopping day that might get lost in the shuffle: Small Business Saturday. This year marks the second annual such event, a new tradition that tries to steal some addition from chain retailers and big e-commerce sites and give it to local vendors.
And this year, the fledging ritual is getting some serious attention from social media sites. Facebook, Twitter, and Google have all pledge their efforts in support, offering and encouraging small business owners to use their sites’ tools to promote shopping this weekend.
Local retailers aren’t the only ones who stand to benefit this weekend. What happens to consumers who want the discounts but sans the chain names (that are sometimes attached to controversy) they go hand in hand with? Small business Saturday can fill that void along with the help of some geo-social applications.
Foursquare
Foursquare has been at the top of the social-meets-location game since it began, and Small Business Saturday will be no exception. If you have an American Express card, sync it to your Foursquare account following these directions. Then when you check-in to shops who have partnered with the service via Foursquare on Saturday, you will see a button that says “load to card.” Then when you spend at least $25 or more at the participating store, you’ll get a notification saying $25 was credited to your Amex account. American Express is a sponsor of Small Business Saturday, so ratcheting up sales is in its best interest, but turns out they’re willing to compensate you for helping make the event a success.
Etsy
The purveyor of all things handcrafted is a natural fit for small business Saturday—and will appeal to those who want to buy “local” without leaving their living rooms. Just searching “Small Business Saturday” on the site brought up a slew of items that will be on sale this weekend, and this blog catalogued some of the best e-shops on the site that offered discounts last year.
Daily deal sites
While the likes of LivingSocial and Groupon tend to offer food and spa deals, the occasional local retailer pops up. Between now and Small Business Saturday, a minimal amount of homework and creating an account with one (or all) of these sites could save you some Monday. We'd advise getting with something like The Dealmix, which collects a large variety of all these local deals. Keep an eye out on any of these applications for vendor or shop deals in your area. Then make a call or check Facebook to see if they are participating in Small Business Saturday. Then add those savings to whatever discount the daily deal site was offering. Of course, you should check that you can use coupons during the Saturday sale.
Facebook
Facebook is offering a slew of tools for small businesses to take advantage of, but the site is also catering to consumers. Check out the Small Business Saturday Facebook page and you’ll have access to a variety of information, including city guides for optimizing your local shopping in New York, Chicago, and San Francisco, as well as organized events in cities nationwide. Some of them include raffles, free gift wrapping, Santa visits for the kids, and community breakfasts.
Twitter
Be sure to follow your favorite local business on Twitter, if you haven’t already. We’re sure a great many of these sites will have implemented a Follow button (one of the tools in the Small Business Saturday kid), and will be using the hashtags #ShopSmall, #ShopSmallNov26, #SmallBizSaturday and #SmallBusinessSaturday to spread word of their discounts this weekend.