[ra]

Groupon and their clones are basically the equivalent of coupons on the back of a supermarket receipt.

Nothing new here.... but it has been very profitable.

[jgroome]

...for Groupon! Not so much the retailers though.

[Tyrannosaurs]

Not for Groupon (which loses money) but some of it's investors have done OK out of it - so far.

[sabret00the]

Isn't it the other way round? Groupon seems to believe that due to the name recognition, they'll become profitable at some point, and even then the business model is heavily reliant on the IPO. The retailers are drumming up a ton of business though.