This is the preparation task of Class 19, which is “blog about one company that you considered to be entrepreneurial”.
Article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/18/business/18sbiz.html?_r=1&ref=entrepreneurship
Groupon is a social-coupon website founded by Andrew Mason in 2008. Groupon offers its followers a deal-of-the-day coupon and the followers are encouraged to share it with social networks. Once a certain number of people sign up for the offer, the deals become available to all. Otherwise, no one gets the deals that day and they will not be charged. Actually, the coupon on Groupon can be regarded as a kind of quantity discount. Groupon makes money by sharing profits with those retailers.
The video below shows how exactly Groupon works.
The risk is reduced for both buyers and retailers. Also, the idea makes fully use of the power of social media and Internet, which guarantee the success rate of most of the deals. Groupon’s innovative business model is proven to be successful – in April 2010, Group raises $135 million from its investors. Seeing this fairly smart and innovative idea and the fast growing market of e-commerce, Mr. Mason takes full advantages of it and creates a quite considerable amount of wealth in a pretty fast speed. A $350 million revenue in 2010 best exemplifies Groupon’s fast growth.
Undoubtedly, Groupon shows the essence of entrepreneurship to the full extent. It derives from a new idea and is operated under a new business model. Also, it creates a unique service in the e-commerce market relying on the platform of social network. It conforms to the Schumpeter’s view of Entrepreneurship from all aspects.