Groupon History: Founding, Timeline, and Milestones;- It’s hard to believe that Groupon was founded only 12 years ago. It seems like we’ve been getting fun, new deals in our inboxes for much longer. In 2008, Groupon was started as a social media platform called The Point by founder Andrew Mason and some of his friends from the University of Chicago.
Inspired by his background in politics, Mason envisioned a site where users could come together to launch projects or raise money for causes they cared about, but it didn’t go over well. Instead, he seized on the possibility to bring people together around great deals in their area and re-launched The Point as Groupon with two notable differences: first, he added the “groupon” button to each deal so customers could easily share them with others; second, he decided to channel all deals through one account instead of having each merchant set up its own account.
These things combined gave Groupon the element of surprise missing from other daily deal sites at the time—namely that you never knew what kind of deal would pop up next!
Founded in 2008 by Andrew Mason as The Point
In 2008, Andrew Mason founded The Point as a website that allowed anyone to set up a group and then find other people who wanted to join the group. This was revolutionary at the time because it enabled people with shared interests (or otherwise) to easily find each other and work together towards common goals.
In 2010, Andrew changed The Point into Groupon when he realized that many of these groups were indeed businesses in disguise—but without any sort of marketing strategy or long-term plan for success, they were struggling to grow their businesses beyond friends and family members.
So he decided to help them by offering them deals on products/services from local businesses on his site; this way, both customers would get something out of using Groupon’s services (saving money) while also promoting local small businesses so they could grow their customer bases!
Called Groupon in 2010
Groupon was founded in 2008 by Andrew Mason, who at the time was running a small Chicago restaurant called The Point. He noticed that one of his customers asked for a half-price discount on her bill after discovering she had been charged too much for her meal, and he realized that if he could offer similar deals to other businesses in the area, they would be more likely to return.
Mason developed Groupon as a daily deal website that offers deep discounts on services and goods, with customers using their mobile phones or computers to buy discounted vouchers via email or social media sites like Facebook. This model has been replicated by other online retailers such as LivingSocial and Zulily since then.
In 2011, Groupon was named “Best Place To Work” by Fortune magazine; it also won awards from Great Places To Work Institute LLC and Glassdoor Inc., where employees rated their company positively across all categories including management opportunities and career advancement potentials (i).
Groupon IPO in 2011
Groupon’s IPO on November 4, 2011 was one of the largest IPOs in history. The company raised $700 million from its initial public offering (IPO), making it one of the largest tech IPOs since Google’s 2004 IPO.
Groupon for Business launched in 2011
Groupon for Business was launched in 2011, becoming the first product to use the Groupon API. Groupon for Business allows businesses to run daily deals and promotions. It also allows businesses to offer subscriptions, which is something that’s unique to the platform. The business model is similar to traditional online advertising but can be customized based on your business needs—you aren’t limited by a set of pre-determined templates or designs when setting up your campaign.
In May 2016, Groupon announced that it would be discontinuing its offering of daily deals after experiencing a 40% drop in revenue since 2012
Groupon Goods launched in 2011.
Groupon Goods is a daily deals website that offers products for sale at a discount. Groupon Goods launched in 2011, and it was a part of the Groupon Merchant division. In 2015, it was renamed to Groupon Merchant.
Acquired SideTour in 2012 and renamed it to Groupon Live.
In 2012, Groupon bought SideTour, a company that connected consumers with tours, activities and events. This acquisition led to the creation of Groupon Live. The service allowed users to find local events and activities in their area by searching for keywords or browsing categories like music concerts, theater shows and sporting events.
The first Groupon Live concert was held at New York’s Webster Hall on November 19th 2012 featuring rap group G-Unit (50 Cent).
Acquired Zerve, a company that connected consumers with tours, activities and events, in 2014.
The company also acquired Zerve, a company that connects consumers with tours, activities and events. The acquisition was part of the company’s strategy to focus on online and mobile businesses.
In 2015, Groupon entered into an agreement with Apple Pay to enable its customers to purchase deals from their iPhones. This partnership paved the way for Groupon as it looks to expand in mobile payments market.
Acquired Blink and restructured the business around a food delivery service under the name OrderUp.
Here’s the gist:
- Blink was founded in 2012.
- Groupon acquired them in 2014.
- The company was then renamed to OrderUp and restructured around food delivery.
- In 2015, OrderUp became its own separate brand name as well as an app for ordering food from restaurants that don’t offer their own delivery service (like IHOP or Taco Bell).
Acquired OrderUp’s biggest competitor, GrubHub Seamless for $287.5 million in 2015.
In 2015, Groupon acquired GrubHub Seamless for $287.5 million in cash. The acquisition was primarily intended to help Groupon challenge Yelp, which had recently released its own group-buying service called Yelp Deals and was gaining significant traction in the market.
GrubHub Seamless was renamed to Groupon Merchant (and later just Groupon Local) after the acquisition took place. The same year that they were acquired by Groupon, these two companies merged together to form a single entity: OrderUp Holdings Inc., which operates as an independent company now with over 700 employees globally serving more than 1 billion customers each year across 25 cities in North America and Europe
Renamed Groupon Goods to Groupon Merchant and relaunched its offerings in 2015.
Groupon Goods is a marketplace for small businesses to buy and sell goods, services and experiences. The new site launched in 2015 with more than 10 million products from over 2 million small businesses across 1,500 categories. The company also introduced Groupon Merchant Connect, which helps merchants run their entire business on the platform.
In 2017 Groupon Merchant launched an offline functionality allowing users to pay in-store using their mobile device or the merchant’s point-of-sale system using Bluetooth technology.
The original vision of the company was to help people find others who wanted to work on a project together through a concept called collective action.
Groupon is a Chicago-based company that was founded in 2008 by Andrew Mason and Eric Lefkofsky. The original vision of the company was to help people find others who wanted to work on a project together through a concept called collective action.
The company was originally called The Point, but it was renamed Groupon in 2010 when it launched its first product: a daily deals e-mail that offered local discounts for restaurants, hair salons and other businesses in select cities across America.
The company IPO’d in 2011 at $20 per share; however, within two years their stock price had dropped more than 50 percent due to concerns over competition from larger players like LivingSocial and Google Offers (now known as Google Shopping Express).
Conclusion
We’ve covered a lot of ground in this article, but I wanted to give you an overview of Groupon’s history and growth over time. In 2008, when Andrew Mason founded The Point, he had no idea how far his company would go. Today, Groupon is a global phenomenon that has made the world more accessible for millions of people around the world. What will be next for Groupon?
Only time will tell, but one thing is certain: it all started with an idea from one man who believed in bringing people together through collective action.
