The Groupon Clipper

摘要

Andrew Mason Says He S Had better ideas than Groupon. "To me, as somebody who likes to come up with ideas, it's kind of stupid," he explains. "Like, I've had way better ideas, way cooler ideas." Maybe, but Groupon has attracted, like, stupid money. So have rivals such as LivingSocial, as investors rush in like a school of tuna hitting a chum slick to get a piece of the Web segment known as social commerce. It's a segment that has grown wildly in the past year: some 200%, according to Needham & Co., an investment-banking firm. Groupon, the category leader, offers its subscribers- who number more than 50 million and are growing at a clip of 3 million a month- discounts on goods and services, but only if a critical mass of people agree to buy the deals that are e-mailed to them each day.