Groupon Stock

Groupon, Inc. (Groupon) operates as a global scaled two-sided marketplace that connects consumers to merchants.

Consumers access the company’s marketplace through its mobile applications and the company’s websites, which are primarily localized groupon.com sites in thirteen countries. The company operates in two segments, North America and International, and in three categories, Local, Goods and Travel.

Strategy

The company’s strategy is to be the trusted marketplace where customers go to buy local services and experiences. The company plans to grow its revenue by building long-term relationships with local merchants to improve the company’s inventory selection and improving the customer experience through inventory curation and improved convenience in order to drive customer demand and purchase frequency.

Categories

Local

The company’s Local category includes experiences and services from local and national merchants, and other revenue sources that are primarily generated through the company’s relationships with local and national merchants. The company’s local inventory includes things to do, beauty and wellness, and dining, as well as other types of experiences and services.

Goods

In the company’s Goods category, it earns service revenue from transactions in which third-party merchants sell products to customers through the company’s marketplaces. The company recognizes Goods revenue on a net basis within service revenue. The company’s Goods category includes merchandise across multiple product lines, such as electronics, sporting goods, jewelry, toys, household items, and apparel.

Travel

Through the company’s Travel category, the company features travel experiences at both discounted and market rates, including hotels, airfare and package deals covering both domestic and international travel. For many of the company’s travel experiences, the customer must contact the merchant directly to make a travel reservation after purchasing a travel voucher from the company. However, for some of its hotel offerings, customers make room reservations directly through the company’s websites and mobile applications.

Traffic Channels and Platforms

The company’s customers access its online local commerce marketplaces through the company’s mobile applications and its websites. The company’s applications and mobile websites enable consumers to browse, purchase, manage, and redeem deals on their mobile devices. For the year ended December 31, 2022, approximately 80% of the company’s global transactions were completed on mobile devices. The company uses a variety of marketing channels to direct customers to the offerings available through these marketplaces.

Marketing

The company uses marketing to acquire and retain customers and promote awareness of the company’s marketplaces and brand. The company uses a variety of marketing channels to make customers aware of its offerings, including search engines, email and push notifications, affiliate channels, social and display advertising, and offline marketing.

Search Engines: Customers can access the company’s offerings indirectly through third-party search engines. The company uses search engine optimization (‘SEO’) and search engine marketing (‘SEM’) to increase the visibility of the company’s offerings in web search results.

Email and Mobile Messaging: The company communicates offerings through email and by push notifications to its customers based on their locations and personal preferences. A customer who interacts with an email or push notification is directed to the company’s website or mobile application to learn more about the deal and to make a purchase. Additionally, the company introduced short message service (‘SMS’) notifications in 2022.

Affiliate Channels: The company has an affiliate program that uses third parties to promote its offerings online. Affiliates earn commissions when customers access the company’s offerings through links on their websites and make purchases on its platform.

Social and Display: The company promotes and publishes its content and offerings through various social networks and adapt its notifications to the particular format of each of these social networking platforms. The company’s websites and mobile applications enable consumers to share the company’s offerings with their personal social networks. The company also promotes its offerings via display advertising across various content publishers.

Television and Other Offline: At times, the company uses other offline marketing channels, such as connected television and traditional television advertising to help build awareness of the company’s offerings and brand.

Regulation

The Virginia Consumer Data Protection Act (the ‘CDPA’) and the Colorado Privacy Act (the ‘CPA’), which will both go into effect in 2023, provide new data privacy rights to their respective residents. The company’s ongoing efforts to comply with these laws and regulations and other relevant privacy and data protection laws and regulations, have required updates to certain business practices and systems.

Intellectual Property

Groupon and its related entities own a number of trademarks and service marks registered or pending in the United States and internationally. In addition, the company owns a number of issued patents and pending patent applications in the United States and internationally, and owns and has applied for copyright registrations in the United States.

History

The company, a Delaware corporation, was founded in 2008. It was incorporated in 2008. The company was formerly known as ThePoint.com, Inc. and changed its name to Groupon, Inc. in 2009.