If you have experiences — good or bad — that you’d like to share, email dailydeals@agrawals.org. I also maintain a companion blog focused on sharing Groupon, LivingSocial and other deal experiences.
Start here
- Why Groupon Is Poised For Collapse
- Deal-a-day websites (Radio New Zealand)
- Cheat Local! (Willamette Week)
- Daily Deal Sites Hurting Some Small Business (CBS San Francisco)
- Groupon Gripes Get Louder (CBS Los Angeles)
Analysis of the S-1/third amendment
Analysis of the S-1/second amendment
- An open letter to Andrew Mason: You’re wrong
- The terrible numbers that Groupon doesn’t want you to focus on
- The SEC should have Groupon start over on its S-1
- Groupon’s new S-1 shows even more cause for worry
For businesses considering using Groupon
- Cheat Local! (Willamette Week)
- Daily Deal Sites Hurting Some Small Business (CBS San Francisco)
- Groupon Gripes Get Louder (CBS Los Angeles)
- Best practices for businesses considering Groupon, LivingSocial or Google Offers
- How daily deal companies could improve the merchant experience — and why they won’t
- American Express to Deliver Discounts (Bloomberg TV)
- 6 cases when it makes sense to run a Groupon
- A look at Groupon’s extremely lopsided merchant agreement
- A sample Groupon merchant agreement
- Revised Groupon merchant agreement
- LivingSocial merchant agreement
- Daily Deal Providers May Be Violating Consumer Protection Laws
- Selling value, not price
- Shop Talk: A conversation with a Groupon merchant
- Shop talk: Square and Groupon
- Local restaurant tries do-it-yourself Groupon
- Virgin America knows how to make daily deals work
- Maximizing the value of deals on Facebook and foursquare
- Google Offers Versus Groupon: The Portland Throwdown
- The Groupon pyramid scheme? (KPCC, Southern California Public Radio)
For potential investors
- There are only two deal companies that matter: Facebook and Google
- The terrible numbers that Groupon doesn’t want you to focus on
- The SEC should have Groupon start over on its S-1
- Groupon’s new S-1 shows even more cause for worry
- Groupon Amends S-1, But Key Numbers Still Missing
- What are the most notable aspects of the Groupon S-1?
- Impact of Gift Cards on Groupon’s Accounting (Bloomberg West)
- The SEC eyes Groupon (Marketplace)
- Daily Deal Sites Mean Everyone Wins: Pro or Con? (Bloomberg Businessweek)
- American Express to Deliver Discounts (Bloomberg West)
- Time to Beware of Google? (CNBC)
- Agrawal Says Groupon Not Providing Retailers Real Value: Video (Bloomberg West)
- Daily Deals And The Potential For Fraud
- Google Offers Versus Groupon: The Portland Throwdown
For consumers
- Groupon Gripes Get Louder (CBS Los Angeles)
- Daily Deal Providers May Be Violating Consumer Protection Laws
- Daily deals and personal social responsibility
- My great Groupon customer service experience
My daily deals stories on TechCrunch
- 160-Year-Old American Express Out-Innovates Google and Groupon
- Groupon Amends S-1, But Key Numbers Still Missing
- Foursquare’s New Deal Partnerships Are No Big Deal
- Google Offers Versus Groupon: The Portland Throwdown
- Daily Deals And The Potential For Fraud
- Daily Deal Providers May Be Violating Consumer Protection Laws
- Why All The Daily Deal Hate?
- Why Groupon Is Poised For Collapse
- Why I Want Google Offers And The Entire Daily Deals Business To Die
- Google Offers Is A Cheap Knockoff
- Groupon Was “The Single Worst Decision I Have Ever Made As A Business Owner”
- Why Daily Deals Are Becoming A Raw Deal
My comments in other media outlets
- LivingSocial Aims to Be Different from Groupon (Bloomberg Businessweek)
- Cheat Local! (Willamette Week)
- Impact of Gift Cards on Groupon’s Accounting (Bloomberg West)
- The SEC eyes Groupon (Marketplace)
- Daily Deal Sites Hurting Some Small Business (CBS San Francisco)
- Daily Deal Sites Mean Everyone Wins: Pro or Con? (Bloomberg Businessweek)
- Groupon Gripes Get Louder (CBS Los Angeles)
- American Express to Deliver Discounts (Bloomberg West)
- Deal-a-day websites (Radio New Zealand)
- Time to Beware of Google? (CNBC)
- New daily-deals twist: Request your own discounts (CNNMoney)
- The Groupon pyramid scheme? (KPCC, Southern California Public Radio)
- Agrawal Says Groupon Not Providing Retailers Real Value: Video (Bloomberg West)
My series on local search
- Part 1: Local search is starting to get more social
- Part 2: How the battle for local search will be won
- Part 3: Google Hotpot a strong competitor to Yelp
- Part 4: Statistics on business and consumer engagement in local search
- Part 5: Foursquare 3.0 takes mobile ball to a whole new level
Groupon IPO at risk/Groupon in danger of collapse stories from other outlets
- Model shows Groupon not far from bankruptcy (Bloomberg West)
- Hamadeh Compares Groupon to a ‘Ponzi Scheme’ (Bloomberg West)
- The Fall of Groupon: Is the Daily Deals Site Running Out of Cash? (The Atlantic)
- Dyson Says Groupon Not Ready to Hold Initial Share Sale (Bloomberg West)
- Just How Fatal Are Groupon’s Fatal Flaws? (AdAge)
- Don’t Mean To Be Alarmist, But Groupon Is Running Low On Cash (Business Insider)
- Groupon Doomed by Too Much of a Good Thing (Harvard Business Review)
- Groupon IPO in Jeopardy Due to Increasing Local Competition, Pricing Pressure, and Legal Threats: New Report From PrivCo Media, LLC
- Look How Close Groupon Is to Going Bankrupt
- Groupon Panic: Is It Insolvent–and Could IPO Get Pulled?
- Is Groupon a financial trainwreck waiting to happen? (GigaOm)
- Groupon low on its dough (NY Post)
Other great resources on daily deals space
- Groupon’s Stumbles May Force a Smaller IPO (Bloomberg)
- Trust No One, Particularly Not Groupon’s Accountants (Grumpy Old Accountants)
- Kedrosky on Groupon IPO, Foursquare Partnership (Bloomberg West)
- Coupon Sites Are a Great Deal, but Not Always to Merchants (New York Times)
- Food Critic Exposes The Bad Dining Deals From Groupon, Gilt & More (HuffPost Food)
- Groupon: How not to go public (MarketWatch)
- Groupon’s funny math (Washington Post)
- The Dirt On Daily-Deals Sites (Discovery News)
Originally published June 12, 2011; regularly updated.
Rakesh Agrawal's blog 
Hey Rocky, check out this article that mentions another class action case:
http://www.sfbg.com/2011/06/14/groupons-secret
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Rocky, thanks for the ongoing “daily deal” coverage. I had been wondering why these companies are exempt from the rules that apply to merchant cash advance because the business model is similar, particularly those that are now offering the cash within days. Cash advances have proved to be disastrous for many small businesses. While they don’t use terms like interest rate, because the paybacks are based on sales volume, if one averages the projected payback dates the interest rates are astronomical, as are Groupons. Daily deals are an unsecured loan and I see risk for both the merchant and the consumer.
That being said, gift cards sold by merchants are also exempt from the rules that apply to cash advance and the merchant receives the money within a few days. Gift cards are an advance against delivery of a product or service but the merchant isn’t giving away 40% to a third party.
Hey Rocky,
Interesting collection. I think this industry is def going to get worse before it stabilizes into a long-term viable model. Either way – thanks for helping to keep the information organized!
Check us out if interested – http://www/ddfs.org
Sorry! http://www.ddfs.org. Too much coffee this morning!
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