Groupon is a deal-of-the-day website that is localized to major markets in the United States and Canada. The first market for Groupon was Chicago, followed soon thereafter by Boston and New York City and Toronto. As of January 2010, Groupon serves more than 40 markets. Groupon launched in November 2008.
The idea for Groupon was created by now-CEO Andrew Mason. The idea subsequently gained the attention of his former employer, Eric Lefkofsky, who provided $1 million in "seed money" to develop the idea.
Groupon also owns several international operations, all of which were originally deal-of-the-day services similar to it, but then re-branded under the Groupon name after acquisition; these have included the European-based MyCityDeal, the Japanese service Qpod.jp, and Darberry.ru.
Groupon #1 WebSite 2010
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URL http://www.groupon.com http://www.groupon.com/about
Commercial? Yes
Type of site Electronic Commerce
Registration None
Available language(s) English
Owner ThePoint, Inc.
Created by Andrew Mason
Andrew Mason Founder/CEO (twitter)
Andrew Mason is the founder of Groupon as well as The Point, the collective action platform from which Groupon was born. Andrew's mostly unremarkable existence began in Pittsburgh, PA; he moved to Chicago in 1999 to attend Northwestern University, where he lives today with his girlfriend and over 20 cats. Andrew graduated with a degree in music, the uselessness of which served as a chief inspiration to not be useless. Out of college, Andrew became a software developer by no ambition of his own, but via a series of acquaintances offering to give him money to do incrementally harder stuff on computers. Excited by the power of technology to change the world, Andrew developed Policy Tree, a policy debate visualization tool, and won a scholarship to attend the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy in 2006. In school for only 3 months, the flighty Andrew dropped out after receiving an unexpected offer to fund the idea that would become The Point. The Point, a ground-breaking approach to online collective action and fundraising, launched in November 2007. One year later, Andrew founded Groupon, leveraging the collective buying technology of The Point to make it easier (and cheaper) to experience all the great stuff in Chicago. At various points in his life, Andrew has also started businesses to deliver bagels as if they were newspapers, and sell muffins with cranberries that he found in his backyard to people living on his street. When he isn't working, Andrew spends most of his time writing his life coach training book, Unleash the Power Within the Power Within: Self Help For Self Helpers.
Launched November 2008
Revenue US$350 million (2010 est.)[1]
Current status Online
Groupon in Wikipedia
