Groupon Case Study Essay

(Situation – Distilling the case) During only three years from its inception, Groupon experienced an explosive growth from a small startup into a global enterprise with 11,500 in nearly 50 countries by the end of 2011. But within all its fame and promising successful trajectory, Groupon operated at a loss every year. (We can use the income statements exhibit presented in the case)
(Trigger) Given the simplicity of the business model, Groupon was facing great competition not only from over 2000 clones worldwide but also from giants like Google and Facebook. Although the company was spending heavily on advanced search engine advertising, online marketing, customer service, and its merchant sales force (45% of company’s employees), they were