| 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! |
Showing posts with label Groupon. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Groupon. Show all posts
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
Groupon Traffic on the Skids
Friday, May 20, 2011
LinkedIn Shares Soar in IPO
Shares of LinkedIn soared to more than double their offering price in the company’s IPO on the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday morning.
LinkedIn began trading around 10:00 a.m. ET under the symbol LNKD and quickly surged to above $90 per share. The company had priced its shares at $45 each on Wednesday ahead of the IPO, and the move significantly higher now values the company at more than $8 billion. (Update: As of 10:20 a.m. ET, shares had settled in the $80-$85 range.)
The huge pop also makes founder Reid Hoffman a billionaire — his stake had been valued at $855 million at the original offering price.
LinkedIn’s IPO is viewed by many as a barometer of the public market’s appetite for Internet and social media companies, with the likes of Facebook, Groupon, Pandora and Kayak expected to IPO within the next year. Certainly, today’s huge pop in LinkedIn shares sends a signal that the market is once again hungry (if not starving) for tech.
Image credit: Bloomberg TV
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