A couple of months ago, I received an e-mail invitation from a friend to join Groupon. For some reason I thought it was spam and didn't bother going into it. Even if it said half off for an amazing cruise. A few weeks later, I heard about how my friend's girlfriend went out to eat with a ton of friends at some nice Italian restaurant for dirt cheap because of a deal they got through Groupon.
Well, back when I had heard about it, Google offered about $6 billion to buy the booming deal-of-the-day website. According to the Chicago Tribune, Groupon is looking to quadruple Google's offer. "Going public would free more capital to pursue these kinds of strategies, putting Groupon further ahead of rivals." But Facebook could get in their way of getting that high IPO. The internet controlling social network plans to engage in the "deal of the day" market. Because Facebook knows where you live, your age, interests, etc., advertisers can reach certain target markets, making it way easier.
Although Groupon is an app on smart phones, more than 200 million users use Facebook on their mobile devices. So if Facebook can do the same thing, or better, as Groupon regarding the best deals of the day, then the competition is over. Facebook is too powerful. In my opinion, Groupon shouldn't go public unless Facebook joins the game.
