[jasonabelli]

I just don’t think it is a feasible long term business model. It cost to much to employ tons of sales people to push themselves on small businesses, that don’t realize that taking a loss to drum up new business is not a good idea when all Grouponers want is to move on to the next deal. Therefore, they seldom get repeat deals with vendors (and who would after offering %75 off after discount and commission) and have to constantly look for a new (sucker) small business to work with. Not to mention they employ more writers than the New York Times, to come up with their cute little blurbs. That has to add up quick. They employ over 6000 people and growing quickly.

[jpdoctor]

> I just don’t think it is a feasible long term business model.

Given the results, it seems that it's not even a feasible short-term business model.

[realschool]

Something about Groupon hasn't felt right since the beginning.

[paulhauggis]

I think it's difficult to measure because yes, they may be taking an initial loss. But, they may gain new customers as a result of the temporary loss making it a positive.

The issue is how many customers have they conclusively gained as a result?

Newspaper/magazine ads are no different. Unlike online advertisements, it's not easy to measure.

I worked at a company that bought hundreds and thousands of ads per month and we had a difficult time measuring. You can ask the customer where they found you (which takes time and many times the customer doesn't give it to you) or you could have multiple phone numbers, which is not a good solution either.

[anigbrowl]

What was that old adage about advertising? something like 'half of all advertising money is wasted, but nobody knows which half.'