Groupon announces that it will no longer release accurate deal-buying data

Absrtact: On the morning of October 11, Groupon announced on its official blog in Sunday that it will no longer publish accurate group buying deals to prevent researchers from predicting the company's revenue. Groupon generates revenue by selling buy deals. The company said in its blog that the actual

On the morning of October 11, Groupon announced on its official blog in Sunday that it would no longer publish accurate group buying deals to prevent researchers from predicting the company's revenues.

Groupon generates revenue by selling buy deals. The company said in its blog that the actual purchase data will be cut 0.5% to 19.5%, the specific proportion of the random decision. A Groupon spokeswoman said: "This is intended to continue to reflect the popularity of group buying and to prevent the outside world from predicting our sales." ”

Groupon, just a few days ago, said in its latest IPO document that it would eventually be able to cut marketing spending. Investors and analysts have been questioning the sustainability of their business models because of the huge marketing overhead needed to get new users.

Groupon said the company would then use the word "over" to avoid providing accurate data when describing group buying data. Groupon said third parties ' estimates of the company's sales "have been inaccurate ... We don't like the situation, just as you might not want someone to guess all the way around your weight. ”

Sucharita Mourproux Sucharita Mulpuru, an analyst at the US market research firm, said Groupon should have done this earlier because it would only benefit rivals and help them understand which group deals worked best. "Companies usually do not disclose specific sales of any product. The only thing that can benefit from that is competitors. "she said.

Although Yipit's business is based on the "Buy counter" feature, the company's data Product manager David Sinski (David Sinsky) denies the data was wrong. "If they really think that all the data is inaccurate, there is no need to create trouble for our work," he said. "he said.

Yipit will follow up on Groupon's buying deals for North America, and then calculate Groupon's gross earnings, which will be released earlier than Groupon's quarterly report. The company's data show that in September this year, the North American group buying industry grew by 12% per cent, to 266.6 million U.S. dollars, and August the quarter-on-quarter growth of 9%.

Groupon says third-party data does not consider private or mobile transactions. Zimsky said the figures were excluded because they accounted for too little of Groupon's total revenue and had no real impact. He also said Yipit would continue to measure Groupon's revenue figures.

Groupon submitted its 750 million-dollar IPO earlier this year, but was criticised for using unconventional accounting methods. The company has corrected the act in its latest IPO filings.