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Groupon CEO Andrew Mason fired due to poor quarterly results

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Corporate News, News, Revenue,

Groupon andrew mason fired

Yesterday, Groupon hit us with a massively disappointing first-quarter earnings report, which saw its stock tumble by over 25% after hours, and now CEO Andrew Mason is out. Someone had to take the fall, and the burden came on the shoulders of Mason, who'll be replaced in the interim by Ted Leonsis and Eric Lefkofsky while the board finds a new CEO. Mason released a letter to employees, and also made it public, admitting that he knew it would leak anyway--give it a read after the break.

Click to continue reading Groupon CEO Andrew Mason fired due to poor quarterly results

Read More | Groupon

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Here’s how the top web companies and services make money

Posted by Jason Diaz Categories: Corporate News, Internet,

How Do They Make Money

Ever wonder how your favorite tech companies, apps, services or social networks like Facebook and Twitter actually make money? Do they even make a profit? This cool HTML5 optimized page by RCS See Interactive answers that very question. It gathers up all of that info and breaks it down into categories in a cool interactive way. It lets you know which companies make money from advertising, subscriptions, lead generation, selling your data (yep, that happens a lot!), freemium models, and royalties. Go check it out! Tap any circle and what you find may surprise you.

[Thanks, Pedro!]

Read More | How Do They Make Money?

Pirq 1.5: Refreshed UI, more new features coming soon

Pirq 1.5

We were able to get a look at the new Pirq app update, which is focused on bringing beauty to the free restaurant discount app. In addition to making the app look a bit more slick, Pirq also worked on bringing restaurant information directly into the app itself in a Yelp-like fashion, and finally, the company wanted to make it even easier to go through the process of finding a restaurant to eat at, to redeeming the free deal (no pre-printed coupons or pre-payments are needed, unlike apps like Groupon or LivingSocial.)

The tour of the app begins with the magazine philosophy. In order to get users to tap on a restaurant deal, a magazine approach is used. Big, polished, glossy images of delicious food, all from the restaurants. The app even pulls in featured menu items that are popular at the different restaurants. Read on for all the details.

Click to continue reading Pirq 1.5: Refreshed UI, more new features coming soon


Groupon featuring a screaming deal on a LG 3D Smart HDTV

Posted by Andrey Malskiy Categories: HDTV, Home Entertainment, Hot Deals,

LD HDTV plasma groupon

This week Groupon is featuring a 60-inch 3D 1080P LG plasma HDTV at a significant discount, at just $1,299 with shipping included. The deal is good for the next six days. The retailer behind the sale is the fantastic OneCall, so it's legit. The LG set features a THX-certified display, WI-Fi capability with included adapter, 2D-to-3D coversion, and a motion control remote.

Don’t forget, if you’re looking for other deals, be sure to check out our Newegg Promo Code thread. Oh, and if you're on Twitter, be sure to follow @TechPromos for the latest deals, or you can Like TechPromos on Facebook.

Read More | Groupon

Black Friday 2011: Groupon

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Accessories, Hot Deals, Music,

groupon Black Friday 2011Yep, even Groupon is getting in on Black Friday 2011! The daily deal site has a bunch of items for sale specifically for the biggest shopping day of the year, including a pair of Fanny Wang 1001 on-ear headphones for just $85. Groupon's Black Friday deals are live now, and go through Cyber Monday, while supplies last. Go on and give 'em a look!


Pirq brings real-time deals to your smartphone

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Hot Deals, Internet,

PirqSure, you are probably familiar with deal services like Groupon and LivingSocial, where you spend money up front in exchange for a coupon offering a deep discount for some food or, I dunno, foot rubs...but it's pretty much always the same thing. You get emails with new daily offers, and if you want to take advantage of them, you need to pony up the cash up-front. Pirq is looking to switch things up. They are currently in beta (although you can sign up here,) and they are bringing real-time deals to your smartphone, and you don't need to pre-buy them. You just open the app and look for deals that are going on right then, wherever you happen to be, and you can go grab one. It's a win for the consumer, but also a win for the merchant, since they can tailor deals to manage flow into their establishments, as opposed to the typical Groupon day-after lunchtime rush. It's a good idea, and the man is charge is James Sun, a runner up on The Apprentice.

Read More | Pirq

‘Groupon Now’ brings instant, spur-of-moment, location-based deals

Groupon has launched an instant, location-based mobile deal offering service called Groupon Now. The service offers various deals throughout the day via a mobile application or on the Web, rather than a single deal delivered to your inbox.

It's similar to the way services like Foursquare or Facebook Places offer discounts and deals, tapping into your device's GPS to peddle coupons in real-time. When you enter your location, Groupon Now lets you choose the type of deal you'd like, whether it's a half-price salsa lesson or a discount on a cheeseburger. Using your existing Groupon account, you can purchase the deal with one click, present a barcode for the vendor to scan, and claim your discount.

Click to continue reading ‘Groupon Now’ brings instant, spur-of-moment, location-based deals

Read More | Groupon

The best of April Fool’s Day 2011 from around the web

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Features, Google, Internet,

April Fool's Day is upon us, and that means that you can never be too sure if anything you read today is true or bogus. Everyone from Google and Hulu to Funny or Die and Groupon have come up with their own gags, and here's a look at some of the ones circulating this morning. If you see any other notable April Fool's Day jokes, let us know in the comments.

GOOGLE

Chromercise: In a throw-back to Jane Fonda and the Jazzercise era, Google is helping you get your fingers limbered up for some searching with Chromercise. Strap on your most flattering 80s fingerwarmers and Google-fied headbands, and feel the burn.

YouTube: While you might think that YouTube was founded in the last decade, it actually dates back to 1911, when videos of horse and buggy crashes and pre-talkie fruit conversations dominated the airwaves. And of course, pets were still able to play instruments with ease; trumpet cat ftw.

Autocompleter: You thought those auto-completes on Google were done by an algorithm? Nah, it's just Michael, an auto-completer at Google. He started out as a spell checker, but now provides users with suggestions as they type. Michael averages about 34,000 words per minute and goes through a keyboard every eight days.

Comic Sans for Everyone: As we all know, comic sans is everyone's favorite font. As a result, Google will roll it out as its default fonts across all Google products, effective April 4. It's live for a few lucky people in the Google Labs Trusted Tester Beta Preview Sandbox program, so check it out.

Gmail Motion: Typing and using a mouse to write emails? Blech. With Gmail Motion, you can use your Webcam and simple movements to tell Gmail what to write. To open an email, move your hands like your opening an envelope. To reply, point your thumb behind you; use both hands to reply all.

Click to continue reading The best of April Fool’s Day 2011 from around the web


Google Offers to compete with Groupon

Posted by Patrick Lambert Categories: Google, Hot Deals, Internet,

Google Offers Groupon

A few months ago Google was in talks to buy Groupon for $6 billion in order to bolster its local advertising business, but nothing came out of it. Now, a leaked document points at the company starting their own Groupon clone, Google Offers. The new service will be similar to Groupon and offer coupons to subscribers, based on location, offering them a deal of the day. It will be powered by Google Checkout and allow sharing through Facebook, Twitter, Reader and Buzz.

The service is in the testing phase right now, but we know Google wants to push this one out to the masses as soon as possible.

Read More | Mashable

Groupon CEO apologizes for Bird Cafe screw-up

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: News, Planning, Startups,

Andrew Mason, founder and CEO of Groupon, has issued an apology to customers in Japan by way of a YouTube video today. The apology is in relation to a New Years deal that ended up being a catastrophe. Food delivery business Bird Cafe has been featured on Groupon in the past, but the restaurant was overwhelmed by the volume of orders that came with the New Years osechi meal. Many meals were delivered late, while others were on time, but in "terrible condition." Groupon reimbursed all customers for the purchased and apologized in an email, but it's great to see Mason step up and personally apologize on video. Leaders of other companies might take notice--this is how you step up and own a mistake your company made.

Groupon is in the process of educating its merchants on "capacity planning" to avoid similar problems in the future.


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