In its very irreverent way, Groupon announced today that it had raise “like a billion dollars” and would use the funds to drive its global expansion, invest in technology, and provide liquidity for employees and early investors.
I have to admit that I’m a Groupon fan. Who doesn’t love a bargain? And they do a good job of finding deals that are, for the most part, relevant (to me, at least). I also get daily deal e-mails from Living Social, BloomSpot and a number of others. Ok, I’m not a shopaholic, but I am fascinated by the explosion of social commerce and I do love comparing the offers and finding a good deal in the process.
For context, I’m the person who would see something in the store and go home to retrieve the coupon waiting in my e-mail before purchasing (and e-mail it to friends as well), so these offers take the work out of bargain-hunting and bargain-sharing for me.
On the other hand, now the work is in sorting through a multitude of offers. So although it’s great for Groupon that it has been deemed “the fastest growing company ever” by Forbes Magazine and now can easily toss around a number of other accolades, I’m waiting for the deal aggregator-aggregator. That’s right, I want a company (or an app) that will sort through all these competitors’ bargains and deliver the most relevant, “most likely to result in a transaction” offers to my e-mail, phone, iPad… You get the point.
