[andrewljohnson]

I upvoted your comment, but I still think you might be wrong.

The journalist may be sensationalizing here, but a high-growth, pre-IPO start-up that is contracting, before it begins to exploit profits, is in trouble.

Whether it's the market or the company that is in trouble, or a mixture of the two, is debatable. But I do think "suddenly unpopular" conveys the gist of the story better than "contracting from its previous peak." The first tells me something is wrong in Groupon world (and there probably is), and the second tries to convince me the whole thing is a non-story.