I.

Competitor analysis

The main online competitors of Groupon are LivingSocial, Bloomspot. They are as young as Groupon, as much like the same but they have chosen different way to approach the market. LivingSocial is the biggest competitor right now in term of sale and market share in US market as well as international market. Like every other players, they offer deal each day but provided with some minor options and also product group for special targets. On the other hand, Bloomspot is focusing on its customer database which allows company to analyze the productivity ratio for companies and merchant. In the end, they want to create better benefit for the whole value chain. In addition to current players, the market also sees the rise of tech giant. Groupons most outstanding future competitors are Google Offers and Facebook Deal. Those future competitors have a common advantage which is they have a huge number of existing users and importantly with its personal information so they can make use of that and with a little effort they can make way to dominate the market. However, those applications are in beta stage so the time will tell. Moreover, is it too late to capture the market while it is saturate with thousand of copycats and several of deals and offer sites in the Internet? If they could differentiate or even cut down its margin and cost, there is still a chance for them. Although, this type of business model rooted for long time ago; the traditional way could not burgeon without the flourish of Internet. Offline competitors could be seen as co-ops, employee clubs (master thesis). However, in this specific industry, those offline competitors slowly switch to use online tool to advertise themselves and attract more customer or participators. However, they are not competitive and only local business. Moreover, recently there have been some corporations implementing the group buying for its own business. They encourage people to select the deal and with each level of quantity achieved, the price goes down. It is similar to the daily deal sites but offer special products like shoes (Adidas) and laptop (Dell Swarm). However, because there must be a huge effort to advertise to customers but what is gained is not so much, not to mention the lack of diversity and limit of choice; this model have been removed silently without any awareness. Thus, in this analysis, we will focus on analyze the 2 main online competitors and 1 future competitor which are LivingSocial, Bloomspot and Google Offers using the model of competitive strategy from Porter, Micheal E. The order is ranked by the level of importance.

Objectives

Strategy

Competitors Assumptions Resources & capabilities

Figure 1 Porter, 1980, Competitive strategy

1. LivingSocial Living social is the biggest competitor of Groupon in Us and international market. It has raised funding through many venture capitals and private firm (Amazon) to wait for good time for IPO. Currently, it has about 26 million members in 250 markets in 12 countries1.Customers could get benefit from a lot of product package: Daily deals, Instant, Escapes, Adventures, and Families which address many segments of the market: General users, tourists, travellers, young people, and families group (in corresponding order). 2011(estimated) Revenues Total Employees Productivity (Revenue/Employee) Number of subscribers $380,000,000 1,800 $211,111 28,000,000 20010 $40,000,000 590 $67,797 12,000,000 2000 $3,200,000 30 $106,667 300,000 10 2008

(Source: LivingSocial market research, Privco.com) Objectives

It is currently having local presence in 235 cities in US, 80 cities in Europe and around 40 cities in Oceania. The US market is considered the native market so it is easier to familiarize with legal system, building new customers than in international markets. Hence, they want to focus more in US market which is more profitable, especially in the largest cities like DC and New York. With an attempt to do that, the daily deals site offer the Hyper local Daily deal which promotes buying in immediate neighborhood so that customers can have more choices to enjoy its shopping, dining and playing. Furthermore, they also offer a gift card of high-end grocery food with 50% discount from a nationwide grocery store which means that LivingSocial can increase its mailing list even better as part of its

Heine, Christopher, LivingSocial picks up $400 million in funding, Clickz, April 5, 2011 http://www.clickz.com/clickz/news/2040662/livingsocial-picks-usd400-million-funding, accessed 1/12/2011
1

strategy2.Like many daily deal sites, its members can purchase and redeem its voucher at the next day. However, there is one big thing that differentiates LivingSocial to other site is members can have the option to send the link to his or her contacts and if three of them purchase the offer, the initial member can have it for free. Strategy

Overall, LivingSocial adopts the following strategy: Product leadership according to Michael Treacy and Fred Wieserma3. They have grown a wide range of product packages to offer the most fastidious person with a reasonable price which other competitors do not expect from customers. Moreover, they have built powerful and firm business systems in many cities in US that could deliver more compared to its competitors. Its local staffs will bring more value to customers because they have localized knowledge and relationships which will provide more sustainable competitive advantage though it is slower and expensive than Groupons telemarketing way 4. In addition to that, holding 32% of shares makes Amazon responsible and committed to LivingSocial. A lot of money and effort have been poured in LivingSocial which would make a win-win situation for both. o They have launched some food events to aim at high-end customers who they charge $100 to $200 to experience a new atmosphere and unforgettable moments. Moreover, the deals is only exclusive to LivingSocial members so the limitation can be an attraction to other customers and a bonus reward to the existence members 5 o The strategic partnership with Amazon is a big leap for a young start-up. They also have sold over 1 million of Amazon voucher worth $20 for only $10. In addition, by leveraging Amazons vast customer list, the acquisition cost of new customer and vendors is dramatically decreases. In the future, Amazons Kindle Fire will be sold which could be a good news for LivingSocial. With an ultralow price which Amazon accepts to make loss, the Kindle Fire will be a blockbuster and a good advertiser for LivingSocials deal. o Mergers and Acquisition activities Date 10/2010 11/2010 01/2011 Target Urban Escapes Jump On It Lets Bonus Deal type Acquisition Majority Acquisition Acquisition Price n/a n/a n/a Purpose New product and market Australian market Market expansion

Cheredar, Tom, LivingSocial offers 50% off Wholefoods gift card, VentureBeat, September 13, 2011 http://venturebeat.com/2011/09/13/livingsocial-offers-50-percent-off-whole-foods-gift-card/,accessed 1/12/2011
2

Kotler, P., Armstrong, G., Saunders, J., Wong, V., Principles of Marketing, Second European edition, 1998, Chapter 12 pp. 503-534
3 4 5

Treacy, M. and Wieserma, F., 1993, Customer intimacy and other value disciplines, Harvard Business Review

Associated press, LivingSocial launching exclusive food events, WallStreetJournal, October 17, 2011, http://online.wsj.com/article/APa2c960f6feb64e4a9880eecd1a11186a.html?KEYWORDS=livingsocial accessed 1/12/2011

03/2011 06/2011 06/2011

InfoEther Ensogo Dealissime

Acquisition Acquisition Majority Acquisition Minority Stake Purchase Acquisition Acquisition Acquisition

n/a n/a $6,000,000

New platform Thailand and Philippines market French female market

06/2011 06/2011 08/2011

DealKeren GoNabit Ticket Monster

n/a n/a

Indonesia market Middle Eastern market

$142,900,000 Korean market

(Source: LivingSocial market research, Privco) LivingSocial have made a lot of acquisition in the past 2 years in a strategically expansion, mostly in Asia-Pacific countries which are developing very fast while Groupon also makes hectic expansion in 45 countries. In the meantime, the US market seems to be saturated with hundred of daily deal sites Groupons copycats. Hence, expansion into other continents and setting up new customer base is important. Seeking with a good and efficient local staff is a time consuming a activities so it is better to implement it earlier. Assumptions

As it grow bigger and bigger, LivingSocial has to deal with localizing and managing people from many markets due to the fact that, it hires local staffs. Moreover, the daily deal provides merchants with a sudden surge of demand on a particular time. There is a report that, some merchants have to hire a person just for answer the phone right after the deal comes online. However, this is not good for small merchants who can not meet all the demand. They have to give up places for regular, normal customers or in the other way around, they lost customers and reputation. Date 7/2008 Resources and Capabilities Investors Steve Case Grotech Ventures Revolution Grotech ventures US Venture partners Grotech Ventures Revolution Lightspeed Venture Partners US Venture Partners Grotech Ventures Revolution Amazon Round A Investment $ 5million

1/2010 3/2010

B B

$ 5million $ 25million

4/2010

$ 14 million

12/2010

$ 183 million

Light speed Venture Partners 4/2011 Amazon Lightspeed Venture Partners T.Rowe Price Total (Source: LivingSocial profile, Crunchbase)

$ 400 million

$ 632 million

Raising a little less than Groupon from series of investment, however, LivingSocial made a good management of its money. Being the second in the market also brings advantage, it does not have to spend much on marketing, research which in turn saves a lot of money. It can follow the leader to know where to dig the gold and with enough resources and capacity, it could open up a new market and be the leader. In fact, FORTUNE analyzed the stock returns of major U.S. companies in ten industries and found that the industry leaders by revenue returned a mere 2% over the past 12 months, vs. 21% for their second bananas6.

2. Bloomspot The 1-year-old company is doing very well as a market niche. Its presence in 12 large cities in US partly proves the success of this young star-up. Unlike traditional daily deal sites, it will end the normal 1 deal per day loop to target premium customers with premium deals that is less frequent to selected subscribers which can assure a sale to merchant. In addition, Bloomspot will not charge merchants as usual, i.e. regardless of how much customer spent, but they will take part in the merchants profitability. Moreover, the data from customers can be tracked by merchants to make exclusive offer to VIP customers. Bloomspot knows that people will be very annoyed with massive deal in their mailbox and they will be unhappy with the site sand eventually unsubscribe from it. Amazon Local has also experienced the same situation, called deal fatigue. It has actively unsubscribed members out of the mailing list due to the inactivity of the users7. Objectives

With only 11 markets in US, Bloomspot should want to gain new markets, especially big cities where gather big spenders as a short-term objective. Strategy

Its slogan Live life better could best describe its strategy. Bloomspot wants to dedicate its effort to ensure the profitability of merchants and in the other end, to ensure the satisfaction of customers. The customer database system might be the differentiation of Bloomspot to other business. Their customer intimacy strategy would best serve only to a small amount of customers but with better value and
6 7

Jon Birger, Second-Mover Advantage via FORTUNE Magazine, March 13, 2006, accessed 1/12/2011

Agrwal, Rocky, Deal fatigue moves Amazon to unsubscribe users from its daily deals mailer, VentureBeat, November 8, 2011 http://venturebeat.com/2011/11/08/deal-fatigue-moves-amazon-to-unsubscribe-users-from-its-daily-dealsmailer/ accessed 1/12/2011

revenue.8 While most of the sites sell coupons with less than $100, they can not make much revenue and commission and eventually, it would be very expensive if they implement a customer database system. That requires a lot of time and effort and overall, it is not necessary for big chunk of customers. Although, the number of subscribers as well as page view of Bloomspot is not spectacular as LivingSocial and Groupon, Bloomspot can make quite a lot of commission from just small piece and they have higher customer satisfaction than others. Moreover, this strategy would suit well to merchants desire: claiming more regular customers. People who purchase the deal will likely to spend more on other services because the deal has high value which turns out that customers will get better experiences and moments. The average spending from customers in Bloomspot usually 3 times to 4 times higher than the value of the deal9. In addition, its competitive advantage lies on the Loyalty program called Bloombucks. Each dollar the customers spend will be rewarded as 1 Bloom buck. They can send the image of the receipt through a mobile application so they can redeem it later on. Thanks to this program, the customers have incentives to increase spending. They found that an average customer spend an 75% more than in the coupon, whose price is fairly high10. Assumption

Following merchants to their success means responsible and sustainable but also risky and vulnerable. Even the algorithm it created may be wrong to project the profitability for merchants. Thus, to ensure everything act accordingly to the plan is a huge problem and take up calculation and forecasting. Furthermore, to meet the demand of customers (wealthy people) is not easy as to meet the demand of normal people. It requires continuous innovation and creativity for special product, offers with good surprise. Date 1/2009 Resources and Capabilities Investor True Ventures Harrison Metal Capital Jeff Weiner Erik Blachford Round Seed

$2.05 million

Kotler, P., Armstrong, G., Saunders, J., Wong, V., Principles of Marketing, Second European edition, 1998, Chapter 12 pp. 503-534
8

Bloomspot, Inc., Bloomspot prime example, Bloomspot Company website http://www.bloomspot.com/primeexamples/ accessed 1/12/2011
8

Duryee, Tricia, Another Groupon clone? Bloomspot says theres room for one more WSJ, Allthingsd, May 16, 2011, http://allthingsd.com/20110516/another-groupon-clone-bloomspot-says-theres-room-for-one-more/
9

Brad Garlinghouse 9/2010 Menlo Ventures True Ventures Harrison Metal Capital 08/2011 InterWest Partners Columbia Capital Menlo Ventures True Ventures QED Investors Harrison Metal Capital Erik Blachford Gary Parsons 08/2011 Western Technology Investment Total (Source: Bloomspot profile, Crunchbase)

Series A

$9 million

Series B

$35 million

Debt

$5 million $51.1 million

The investments received from those rounds were particularly necessary for Bloomspot .They provide cash that company need to expand and grow. Bloomspot will follow others Internet companies way to put aside the IPO, raise as much investment as possible to grow. However, the resources provided at present might be less than it expected. To be compared with LivingSocial or Groupon, the funding secured by Bloomspot is a small piece. Moreover, it needs money to invest in R&D of software and customer database which is strategically crucial.

3. Google offers After failing to acquire Groupon in a $6 billion deal, Google does not want to hesitate anymore to jump in this field. Earlier in this year, Google Offers has been launched in beta stage. It is a future competitor, still in developing but very potential. It can leverage by the huge email list from customer of Gmail, YouTube and other services which in Google Families. The business models of Google Offers is basically the same as many daily deal sites. They offer deals each day and people get discount from 50%. However, Google Offers differentiates with other by giving customer more choices. People can buy the coupons, vouchers regardless of number of people choosing that deal11. This model allows customers to freely choose the deal without much effort for checking its successfulness. However, creating awareness by the quantitative threshold like Groupon and other sites also helps to keep the image of the company. People will get excited if the deal is completed with sufficient number of buyers required. Moreover, the merchants that corporate with Google Offers also
Garas, Nadia, Google Offers rounds out the online daily deal competition, TheVista, November 18, 2011, http://www.theusdvista.com/arts-culture/google-offers-rounds-out-the-online-daily-deal-competition1.2707140#.TtgBNGOBq0s
11

have to deal with the lower sale volume, perhaps might be only 5 or 7 coupons could be sold which is much lower than the break-event point , but they still have to sell for the customers. On the other hand, with Google Offers, merchants can have the possibility to limit the availability of the time the voucher can be redeemed, so they can influence the demand in down time (early in the morning, early afternoon, Tuesday nights, etc...). Objectives

The utmost things that Google Offers wants to do is probably finalized itself and officially on the field. However, unlike other small start-ups, Google is willing to stand against and respond to other players action because of big financing. Still in a beta stage, Google will strive to gain market share without noticing about profitability. Nevertheless, Google would be offended by a price competition from bigger players which would destroy the customer value and Googles business. Another objective that Google is pursuing is integrating Google Offers into the Google Family. Needless to say, eventually Google wants to develop its core competency which is the famous Google Search engines. Linking the deal with Google Search and other Google services would claim more customers, users for Google in general. Strategy
Google Map

Android platform

Google Search

Google Offers

GMail

It is creating a new Google ecology that the existing client network can benefit. Google keeps adding service around its core competencies which is the search engines. In this Google world, users can take note in Google Docs, do research in Google Search Engine, entertain with You Tube and Google TV, go shopping and get deal with Google Shopper. Everything is in their Android smartphones with superior mobility and convenience. Moreover, the partnership with small niche daily deal sites (14 sites including Gilt City which acquired Buywithme12) in which each site offers specific product and target customers or geographical areas. For examples, Mamapedia targets Bay Area moms, Schwaggle offers fitness-related deals, Zozi goes after
Wagstaff, K. Google Strikes Partnerships with 14 Other Daily Deals Sites, , TimeTechland, October 28, 2011, http://techland.time.com/2011/10/28/google-strikes-partnership-with-14-other-daily-deals-sites/
12

adventure seekers, and so on. Google also provide communication application for these partners via Google Shopper which means that customers will benefit from a wide range of list of choices for only subscribing to one site. Moreover, in the registration process, the personalization quiz will customize the deal for each user so that their mailbox will not be spammed by unwanted deals. Still, those unwanted will remain in the Google Shoppers if users want to browse. Assumptions

Google believes that its ecology will help to reshape the group buying market. However, without any creativity, Google can not control or coordinate the market as it wishes. Facebook now has linked to many sites to spread the news or deals and more and more people connecting to Facebook everyday so how to increase the popularity of Google Offers based on Gmail or new-born Google+ is questionable. In addition, the advantage of Android platform which is the son of Google now is used by many competitors. Moreover, Google could have manipulated the search engines for the ranking of the merchants that use Google Offers. However the downside is it is likely to be caught by anti-trust authority. Google also does not want to be outsiders of this game. However, anything it does is only fancy-looking and not really committed to the competition. It assumes the popularity of Google family will create a Halo effect (like Apples) and eventually, the consumers and merchants will flow into Google Offers. Nevertheless, Google has failed in several services: Google Wave, Google Buzz, Google Knol, Side Wiki which do not show any innovation and creativity. Whether Google Offers follows their predecessors or not, it is still a myth but by this time, Facebook Deal, its contemporary friend, has died. Resources and Capabilities

As mentioned above, they have huge client network from Gmail and YouTube services and also from Google+. However, it is still in beta stage so does it wants to utilize the network or just dont want to violate of privacy. Maybe, the Offers will be listed in Google+, a new social network of Google, or in the email from Gmail ads which you can unsubscribe whenever you want. One point need to be clear is that, Google is valued as nearly $192 billion and it is growing very substantially. It is among of the so-called Big Four of Internet Companies (Amazon, Apple, Google, and Facebook). Thus, Google could have easily invested several hundred million dollars instead of raising capital even though; the equity structure is one thing that every company should take in mind. Whether finance the investment by debt or equity, it depends on lots of factors such as, interest rate, cost of equity, how long Google want to play in this field and so on. SWOT analysis LivingSocial Strong financial status Product diversification Strategic partnership More fund through IPO Market expansion Bloomspot Valuable customer database Lucrative commission Expansion in rich cities Valuable customer database Google Offers beta Google ecology Huge capital Many potential More partners Increasing customer

Strength

Opportunity

Weakness

Unattractive for small merchants Groupon and its copycats

Expensive R&D Small scale Risky investment

loyalty No creativity Beta stage Aggressive attack from bigger companies

Threat

Brief comparison between players Groupon ~39% Android App iOS App BlackBerry App WP 7 App Few products, LivingSocial ~35% Android App iOS App Bloomspot Based on profitability Android App iOs App Google Offers beta 50% Android App

Charging Merchants Mobile phone application Customerfriendliness

Several products for selection

Payment term

Funding Advertisement Availability Page view (Google ad Planner) estimated*

1/3 in 5 days, 1/3 30 days in 30 days and 1/3 in 90 days $1.8 billion $632 million Commercials, ads for both merchants and customers 45 countries, 500 11 countries, 377 markets markets 210 million 120 million

Loyalty program to reward customer if they spend more and come back again n/a

Personalization in registration process

80% in 3 days, 20% in 60 days Google Introduction ads for users US, 28 markets n/a

$51.1 million Few US, 11 markets 4.2 million

Availability

Merchantfriendliness

Uniqueness Groupon LivingSocial Bloomspot Google Offers

Personalization

Convenience

Product diversity

II.

Financial analysis

Groupon has its IPO on 3/11/2011 and is valued as 12.5 billion $. It has raised about 700 million cash on the first day with the share price roughly about 20$/share. The investors are expecting the price is going higher to 30$. Besides, they are not doing very well recently due to the fast growth. They have grown from $94 thousand in revenue to approximately $ 1.6 billion (estimated in 2011) in 4 years; the employees also grow from just 30 people to over 7000 (2010)13. To compensate for this boom, Groupon has spent huge amount of money into marketing and especially the administrative expense. In 2010 the operating expense is $700 million while gross margin is just $279 million. It came to big loss for Groupon. However, if we take a look in the operating expense growth rate is slower than the revenue growth rate which shows the sign of prospective profitability. Groupon has received a lot investments from Series A, B, C, D round which accumulated to $632 million. However, at the latest quarter (Q3 2011), the revenue grew by only single digit which is the first time in the companys history. Prior to this, the number has increase in 2 or even 3 digits. Hence, it is more or less a question of how Groupon can grow in this saturated market.

LivingSocial market research, Privco website, http://www.privco.com/private-company/livingsocial accessed 1/12/2011

13

Groupon Growth %
120 100 80 60 40 20 0 3rd quarter 2010 4th quarter 2010 1st quarter 2011 2nd quarter 2011

Groupon Growth %

Financial ratio Year 2010 ROA -0.2 ROCE -28.84 Current ratio 0.47 Debt/equity ratio 39 (Source: Yahoo Finance, Groupon Filling S-1) Performance Year ROA ROCE Current ratio Debt/equity ratio 3rd quarter 2011 -0.27 -7.91 0.61 -45.49

The first measurement that we take into account is ROCE (Return on capital employed) which is a tradeoff between short-term and long-term financing. The number is not so much convincing. Since the end of financial year 2010 until now, the ROCE has increase four folds but are still negative which indicated that the company has been making loss. On the other hand, ROA (return on asset) ratio has a little different story. Unlike ROCE which is influenced by the capital structure, ROA (measured by EBIT/Total Asset) is not. The ratios are negative in both years and decreasing, however, we can not assume the low return of asset because Groupon is not an asset-intense company. The EBIT slummed because Groupon spent a lot of money into marketing and administrative cost for expansion. Liquidity ratios

To analyze its ability to generate liquidity from its current operation, we put the current ratio into consideration. Their ability to pay debt is quite low, only roughly 47% of current asset which can be transferred to cash can meet its short-term obligations which mostly payables to merchants Solvency

Solvency ratio try to measure the risk involved in the repayment of debt and the ability of a company to meet its debt in the long run14 . The debt/ equity of Groupon in 2010 is 39 which is greatly imbalance.
Alexander, D., Britton, A. and Jorissen A., (2011), International Financial Reporting and Analysis, Fifth edition, Chapter 11 and 24
14

Groupon is in its developing phase so it finance the project mostly from the cash raised from investment rounds. In the 3rd quarter of 2011, the company reported a negative ratio due to the negative equity which means the value of asset can not secure the debt. Moreover, again with negative interest cover ratio (-43.63 and -22.26), Groupon is considered very risky for investment. Hence, as a matter of fact, Groupon has to go to IPO with the results of more than $750 million which could let Groupon to continue its operation Investment potential

Due to the recent IPO, we just got some information from its shares. The Book value per share (BVPS) of Groupon is merely $0 while the share price (3/12/2011) is $18.51. This indicates that the market value of Groupon is far more than its book value. Some may say Groupon is overvalued but we believe that this industry is young and highly potential. Another indicator that we take a look is Earnings per share (EPS). It represents the amount of profit available to ordinary shareholders the company has earned during the year for each ordinary share. Groupons EPS is -2.17 which is unusual for the most US companies and we could say it lost $2.17 for every share it issued. Its forward P/E ratio (fye December 31, 2012) is quite enormous, over 135 which indicate the high value and still many investors believe in Groupons prosperity. Since Groupon has no earnings for the last year, we continue to examine another investment indicator which is Price to Sale ratio (P/S). This ratio is particularly used when company is making loss or do not have any earnings. Its P/S is quite high, up to 9.37, compared to other competitors like Google, which is 5.56. However we could say that due to the high growth rate, Groupons sale is growing very quickly and investors still want to pay premium for its shares.

Bibliography
Porter, Michael E., 1980, Competitive strategy, p.49 Heine, Christopher, LivingSocial picks up $400 million in funding, Clickz, April 5, 2011 http://www.clickz.com/clickz/news/2040662/livingsocial-picks-usd400-million-funding, accessed 1/12/2011 LivingSocial market research, Privco website, http://www.privco.com/private-company/livingsocial accessed 1/12/2011 Cheredar, Tom, LivingSocial offers 50% off Wholefoods gift card, VentureBeat, September 13, 2011 http://venturebeat.com/2011/09/13/livingsocial-offers-50-percent-off-whole-foods-gift-card/,accessed 1/12/2011 Treacy, M. and Wieserma, F., 1993, Customer intimacy and other value disciplines, Harvard Business Review

Associated press, LivingSocial launching exclusive food events, WallStreetJournal, October 17, 2011, http://online.wsj.com/article/APa2c960f6feb64e4a9880eecd1a11186a.html?KEYWORDS=livingsocial accessed 1/12/2011 Kotler, P., Armstrong, G., Saunders, J., Wong, V., Principles of Marketing, Second European edition, 1998, Chapter 12 pp. 503-534 LivingSocial profile, http://www.crunchbase.com/company/livingsocial accessed 1/12/2011 Jon Birger, Second-Mover Advantage via FORTUNE Magazine, March 13, 2006, accessed 1/12/2011 Agrwal, Rocky, Deal fatigue moves Amazon to unsubscribe users from its daily deals mailer, VentureBeat, November 8, 2011 http://venturebeat.com/2011/11/08/deal-fatigue-moves-amazon-tounsubscribe-users-from-its-daily-deals-mailer/ accessed 1/12/2011 Bloomspot, Inc., Bloomspot prime example, Bloomspot Company website http://www.bloomspot.com/prime-examples/ accessed 1/12/2011 Duryee, Tricia, Another Groupon clone? Bloomspot says theres room for one more WSJ, Allthingsd, May 16, 2011, http://allthingsd.com/20110516/another-groupon-clone-bloomspot-says-theres-roomfor-one-more/ Bloomspot profile, http://www.crunchbase.com/company/bloomspot-com, accessed 1/12/2011 Garas, Nadia, Google Offers rounds out the online daily deal competition, TheVista, November 18, 2011, http://www.theusdvista.com/arts-culture/google-offers-rounds-out-the-online-daily-dealcompetition-1.2707140#.TtgBNGOBq0s

Wagstaff, K. Google Strikes Partnerships with 14 Other Daily Deals Sites, , TimeTechland, October 28, 2011, http://techland.time.com/2011/10/28/google-strikes-partnership-with-14other-daily-deals-sites/
Groupon, Inc. SEC Filings November 3rd 2011. Form S-1 Filed. November 2nd, 2011 accessed 1/12/2011 Groupon, Inc. (GRPN), Yahoo Finance, accessed 3/12/2011 Alexander, D., Britton, A. and Jorissen A., (2011), International Financial Reporting and Analysis, Fifth edition, Chapter 11 and 24