Groupon’s March quarter was better than expected — to the tune of the stock now hovering around $7.50. As Mashable crunches the numbers, “most of that revenue growth came from North America, where sales increased by 42 percent year-over-year. However, Groupon is still handicapped by its international operations, where sales decreased by 18 percent year-over-year.”
That’s a new wrinkle on the Groupon story.
Elsewhere, though, we’re hearing familiar things. For example, Groupon South Africa’s CEO, Wayne Gosling, has just come forward admitting that his region has “had huge mess-ups in terms of our products and delivery, which has been well documented... we were handling stuff, but not as dynamically as we could be.”
That’s why Groupon SA has recently appointed a new head of customer services, Katja Alves. In a very PR-ish statement, Alves said “consistency of excellence [is what] I am looking to foster and continue to drive here at Groupon in co-operation with the international push to standardize our processes and consumer expectations.”
Groupon is also facing challenges elsewhere around the globe. In India, competitor Snapdeal told the press that it represents “the pivot Groupon always wanted to make.” The company, you see, started off as a deal-lister but now sells “everything from consumer electronics to women’s shoes — all from third parties, akin to the Amazon Marketplace.” There’s a full interview with the company over at allthingsd.com.
Other international challenges for Groupon: Groupon Taiwan has been hacked. More than four million registered users were compromised as a result, but reportedly no credit cards have been affected. So, that’s something, right?
On the Andrew Mason front, “Hardly Workin’,” the former Groupon CEO’s planned “seven song album of motivational business music targeted at people newly entering the workforce” is still forthcoming.
David Wolinsky is a freelance writer and a lifelong Chicagoan. In addition to currently serving as IFC’s comedy, film, and TV blogger, he's also a comedy-writing instructor for Second City and an adjunct professor in DePaul’s College of Computing and Digital Media. (He also co-runs a blog behind the DePaul class, DIY Game Dev.) He was the Chicago city editor for The Onion A.V. Club where he provided in-depth daily coverage of this city's bustling arts/entertainment scene for half a decade. His first career aspirations were to be a game-show host.
