| by Erik Sass, Tuesday, August 30, 2011, 3:06 PM |
| The increasingly competitive group discount and daily deal marketplace may be approaching saturation, judging by new data from Experian Hitwise which shows that market-leader Groupon saw total traffic tumble 50% between the second week in June and the third week in August. The question is whether this indicates growing group discount fatigue among consumers. Well, not entirely: Living Social, one of Groupon's main competitors, actually saw its traffic increase 27% over the same period, according to Experian. But the fact remains that overall traffic to sites in Experian's "Daily Deal and Aggregator" category declined 25%, suggesting that a broader trend may indeed be afoot. A separate survey of local deals customers conducted by PriceGrabber in June found slightly over half said they felt overwhelmed by the proliferation of daily deals and group discount offers. None of this is particularly super news for Groupon, which has been gearing up for an IPO despite financial issues which have given some investors pause. According to a revised financial filing in June, Groupon posted a $420 million loss in 2010 and losses of $117.1 million and $102.7 million in the first and second quarters of 2011, respectively. Costs continue to increase in part because of the personnel-intensive approach to local sales. Meanwhile Groupon faces push back from deal partners who object to the standard 50%-50% revenue-sharing agreement (although rumor has it that some merchants have negotiated revenue sharing deals with a favorable 80%-20% split). None of this has stopped Groupon's valuation soaring from $1.3 billion in April 2010 to $3 billion in November, $4.75 billion in January, and around $25 billion today. Now we have possible signs of consumer fatigue, growing resistance from business partners, and the company has yet to post a profit: sounds like it's time for an IPO! |
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
Groupon Traffic on the Skids
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Social Media Marketing Firm Moves from AZ to CA
Social media and public relations firm SGB Media Group founder and publisher Stephen G. Barr announced today that the firm has moved from Scottsdale, AZ to new quarters in Woodland Hills, CA and is now sharing office space with the fledgeling start up Golden Seeds Game Company, Inc of which Barr sits on and chairs it's Advisory Board and serves as interim Director of Social Media and Business Development.
Social Media Marketing Firm Moves from AZ to CA
Social Media Marketing Firm Moves from AZ to CA
Saturday, September 3, 2011
eReleases Online Press Releases
eReleases.com ensures that your press releases will go out to the major news publications in the nation, such as: USA Today, The New York Times, Yahoo, Google and many more. Make sure that your visitors know how easy it is to get noticed and promoted with us. This is a great opportunity to educate customers on how to write a press release and what to expect from a service like eReleases.
eReleases was founded more than a decade ago with one mission: Biggest Bang for Your PR Buck™
Several years ago, we partnered with the leader in Tier-1 press release newswires: PR Newswire. We told PR Newswire that our clients would never pay what is now about $1,000 for a 500 word press release. I explained that our customer base of thousands of small business owners represent an unserved market at PR Newswire.
Fortunately for our customers, PR Newswire listened and continues to recognize the importance of giving these small business owners access to the leading national press release newswire.
eReleases Is Built on Relationships With the Media
eReleases features a database of more than 100,000 subscribing journalists. I'm proud of this number. Other services less than two years old claim 150,000 journalists or more in their database.
I know the difference. These are off-the-shelf software databases that are filled with nonsense email addresses like newsroom@newspaper.com. They don't reach individual journalists in most cases and when they do, they are treated as the spam they are.
eReleases knows what any savvy publicist knows: it's not the size of your rolodex that matters, it's your relationship to the media inside it.
eReleases was founded more than a decade ago with one mission: Biggest Bang for Your PR Buck™
Several years ago, we partnered with the leader in Tier-1 press release newswires: PR Newswire. We told PR Newswire that our clients would never pay what is now about $1,000 for a 500 word press release. I explained that our customer base of thousands of small business owners represent an unserved market at PR Newswire.
Fortunately for our customers, PR Newswire listened and continues to recognize the importance of giving these small business owners access to the leading national press release newswire.
eReleases Is Built on Relationships With the Media
eReleases features a database of more than 100,000 subscribing journalists. I'm proud of this number. Other services less than two years old claim 150,000 journalists or more in their database.
I know the difference. These are off-the-shelf software databases that are filled with nonsense email addresses like newsroom@newspaper.com. They don't reach individual journalists in most cases and when they do, they are treated as the spam they are.
eReleases knows what any savvy publicist knows: it's not the size of your rolodex that matters, it's your relationship to the media inside it.
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