While most of us grew up watching our parents clip coupons out of the Sunday newspaper”and there are even some of us that still do that”we never would have imagined the impact of the new craze hitting discount shoppers on the web: Groupons.
Groupon founder Andrew Mason is seen as a genius by some and as an annoyance by others running a business doomed to fail. But in its first year of business, the multi-million dollar company seems poised to be the most exciting thing online since eBay burst onto the scene in 1995.
As with most popular web crazes, Groupon has inspired legions of followers like LivingSocial.com or LifeSta.com. But there are plenty of niche markets cashing in on the idea of group discounts for area businesses, and the LGBT community is no exception.
How it works
To truly understand its influence on a local or niche market its important to understand exactly how Groupon works.
A Groupon (or Group Coupon) is a deal-of-the-day savings voucher for any number of entertainment venues or services. A merchant partners with Groupon, offers a special deal that is only honored if a specific number of people participate. If that magic number is not reached, the deal is killed and no one is charged.
As of October 2010, Groupon serves more than 150 markets in North America and 100 markets in Europe, Asia and South America and has amassed 35 million registered users.
While consumers save a bundle of money using a merchant's services, retailers treat the mass coupons as quantity discounts and use them as sales promotions.
Groupon’s deal-of-the-day business is set to generate $3 billion to $4 billion in revenue this year, up from $750 million in 2010, according to a March 2011 article in Bloomsberg Businessweek Magazine.
Groupon was valued at $1.4 billion last April, sought funding at a $3 billion valuation in November and snubbed a $6 billion offer from Google two months after that. The company has been meeting with bankers to discuss a potential initial public offering that would value it at up to $25 billion, Bloomberg Businessweek has learned from two sources close to the negotiations.
Each day the site pitches a specific deal to registered users in their specific areas. It also lets consumers know if the deal is still ongoing or if it has been cancelled.
The LGBT attraction
LGBT Floridians have a special chance to participate in group couponing that benefits LGBT-owned and LGBT-friendly businesses thanks to the minds of the women behind MyQmunity.com. Mariruth Kennedy, the site's founder, recently introduced My Q-pons, which works very similarly to the Groupon.com site.
“We are a social savings site”but with a difference,” Kennedy says on her site. “You like to save, but if you can buy from LGBT-supportive businesses and save, that's even better.”
The site boasts that users will get savings of 30-90% on merchandise and events produced by friendly businesses. Kennedy adds that the site is also putting together exclusive offerings for users of the site through specific, special partnerships with businesses across Florida.
In fact, the site is actively seeking partnerships with area businesses and groups for its bonus deals.
One main difference between the My Q-Pon site and its larger, corporate counterpart, is that the local site doesn't offer deals daily.
“Something special”that's worth waiting for,” Kennedy says.
