Yesterday’s post about the Google-Groupon deal generated a lot of views and comments and two important lessons.
First, on a “meta” level there was a lesson about blogging. While I had known this to some degree before, for stimulating dialog it is far better to write about a current topic and take a one-sided approach. The important lesson though that I am still learning is that one then needs to be open to actually engaging with the comments. Disqus is a wonderful tool for doing that as I can respond to comments via email (disclosure: disqus is a USV portfolio company). Given my schedule of meetings it would otherwise be impossible to get back to even a fraction of the comments. More than ever before I tried to ask further questions in response to comments which often stimulated even more thoughtful responses.
Second, on a substantive level there was a lesson about business models. There is a possibility brought up by several comments and expanded by “Lenley” into a blog post that Groupon can turn its early lead and scale into a defensible position in local commerce similar to Zynga’s in social games. The argument goes something like this: people go where the deals are and businesses go where the people are. By having more of both and constantly learning about which deals work and which deals people have taken (and which of their friends they have invited along), Groupon can more effectively target / cross-promote offerings than smaller competitors. This would be especially powerful if as several comments pointed out Groupon is effective at getting people to try new things. While it is too small a sample and I continue to be skeptical about the long-term effectiveness of discounts as a way to grow businesses, I am open to this line of argument. Groupon’s announcement of their more automated “stores” model is definitely a step in this direction.
Thanks for everyone who contributed to yesterday’s discussion!
