Four years ago discount website Groupon brought daily deals commerce into the mainstream offering users bargains and discounts on spa treatments, fine dining and hotels, amongst others. Since its 2008 launch in Chicago Groupon has grown at a rapid place quickly expanding into some 48 countries.
However, in December 2010 the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) referred the site to the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) over ‘serious concerns’ after it broke UK advertising regulations more than 50 times in less than a year. In March of this year the OFT ruled that Groupon needed to change its trading practices leading UK and Ireland managing director, Roy Blanga to admit Groupon customers had “experienced the negative side effects of our growth” and that “we’ve messed up.”
Since then many have criticised Groupon in the UK of “lagging behind” its contemporaries such as Wowcher, LivingSocial, regional sites such as itison, and its US counterpart. Speaking to The Drum Blanga defended Groupon UK commenting: “Groupon is only two and a half years old in the UK so, it’s fair to say the technology we have has not had the time or the opportunity ‘lag’.
“Many companies have tried to replicate what we do – but none of them have been able to develop as quickly and engage with the level of businesses as we have. What people tend to underestimate is the dual nature of the Groupon model. We are both a technology company and an operational company. You cannot deliver the service we deliver without both sides of the coin.”
Blanga also defended criticisms that the UK offering falls behind its US sister, adding: “The US is Groupon’s largest market and this is why most of our technology is developed and tested there before being rolled out to our other markets.”
David Katz, vice president and general manager for consumer mobile at Groupon agreed with Blanga adding the company was “actually pretty aggressive about rolling out new offerings into the UK market” and “it’s not entirely accurate to say everything comes out of the US.”