Maybe Wang can tell Mason, what's the problem with Groupon?

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In Thursday, Grouponceo Mason, the originator of group buying, announced that he had been "fired", as he wrote in the open letter "I decided to spend more time with my family-joking, in fact, I was fired".

Many people applauded for their sincere attitude and I was one of them. But at the same time, also for its lament. Think of domestic Groupon's "Later" American Regiment, but recently it is another scene: Its founder Wang threw ' U.S. Regiment 2015 sales target of 100 billion ' heavy information, the outside world in question also not without the pertinent meaning.

A "similar" scene, once on Wang, "the total of the successor" happened to Mason.

Once a continuous entrepreneurial Wang of undertaking, the network, the net, domestic network all in the Internet industry has attracted a wave, but always before the waves can not withstand waves, and finally 2 million U.S. dollars to sell the network to Chen a boat to the net but ushered in the soft silver 430 million dollars in pursuit; Rice no net is the domestic first similar to the leader of Twitter, but also by Sina Weibo last 1.5 of the rapid development and beyond (meal no sleep also with the relevant departments as the inevitable relationship); Domestic network can not withstand trailing after positioning white-collar "happy net" offensive and 堙 not. Although Wang is dubbed serial entrepreneur title, but behind the praise also unavoidably implied to the entrepreneur's questioning: He has a keen sense of smell, can decisively grasp the opportunity to lead the trend, but it seems to lack the ability to operate the enterprise.

Back to the protagonist of this article-Mason, compared to Wang, he is a group buying ancestors. After a chance to gain insight, the official launch of Groupon in November 2008. And from then on it became unmanageable:

Groupon made a profit in the 7-month line, and Groupon's revenue reached $500 million in July 2010, when Groupon began to receive a 6 billion-dollar takeover bid from Google, which Groupon eventually rejected; November 4, 2011 Groupon is listed on Nasdaq at $20 per share. The New York Times said it could be the craziest Internet company in history, just 3 years after the official launch of the website to the IPO.

At the same time, Groupon's "Chinese successor" like Shells Kill came in: March 4, 2010, the United States group online line became China's first group buying website, March 14, litters Group online, March 15, Group F online; In just 3 months, there have been nearly thousands of Groupon sites in mainland China. And in the development, from the Thousand Regiment war to handle online city Waterloo again to large group purchase site layoffs to survive, group purchase in life and death robbery experience shuffle, and finally stand in the field of group buying can also be resounding also only the United States Group Network.

The bank's Groupon, however, has been criticised by Wall Street analysts since it came on the market: its use of acsoi accounting indicators in financial reporting has led to unease and distrust in the capital markets. From then on, Groupon stumbled like a limp, and Mason began to suffer from a board whip to the end of the 2012. In the face of this, how could Mason be a founding human?

Perhaps Wang can tell Mason what the problem is?

Before the establishment of the American network, Wang there have been many "people in the past" experience, according to the head of a VC company said, ' Wang is a highly qualified talent, but only good technology and vision is not enough, wrist, network and political acuity are the determinants of life and death. According to industry insiders, Wang's personality characteristics, so that he does not recruit some investors like. Jinsha River Venture capital partner Zhu Yuhu, Wang is not very mature in managing and treating people. He is clever, very clever, but too clever. For Wang itself, the attitude towards capital has always been "the company is bought, not sold." "The arrogance and conceit of the heart are evident.

The author looked at the relevant media coverage, but was surprised to find that Mason unexpectedly and "American Regiment" before the Wang so similar:

In a report published in FastCompany, the American business magazine, Mason's character: Alert, sensitive, combative and uninteresting. Perhaps wary and sensitive stems from being forced by the media and capital markets, but it is pointed out that in a news program, Mason is frustrated by the lack of an ' interesting and mischievous person ' as the rehearsal says.

In fact, if we put aside the utilitarian nature of business, Mason's behavior is at least to maintain himself, the count is true temperament. But it's not just a show, it's not a time for you to flaunt yourself or to walk alone. Behind you, a company with 11,000 employees needs marketing to pursue sales. #p # subtitle #e#

The same as Wang is the conceit of Mason's character, which is particularly evident in his financial reporting "maverick". Groupon is known to have been criticised by Wall Street analysts for using Acsoi accounting indicators to mask the suspicion of excessive marketing costs, and to resubmit financial reports under the pressure of the SEC at 2012,groupon. And Mason explained the practice in an interview:

"You think, just as stupid people do a lot of stupid things that seem obvious." But at the time, we were in a different world, we were the darlings of the High-tech world. Everything goes according to our path, we think acsoi This index is very helpful to up-and, so we set up this measure. But people will think that you are evil companies, and that's why they set such standards. ”

From Mason's point of view, it can be imagined that when he was in the face of Groupon set 3,000 dote on, his inner ego level is difficult to see. His conceit was a childish logic: he thought they created the market, led the market, and the market had to follow the rules they had set. But he did not recognize the fact that he joined the capital market, the market is focused on profits, their favor stems from the pursuit of profit, not your skills, talent and so on.

Lesson: The founder has a keen sense of the market, with the ordinary people do not have the technology, talent and even the trend of products from success is always a step away, and this step away, very likely for your ego, immature, contacts, capital markets and other factors collapsed.

Come back and talk about Wang, the nearest Wang, put his focus on the operation of the United States Regiment, the former continuous entrepreneur, in the continuous "in the home" has faded from the original, as he said, he now do not want to challenge the things that should not be challenged. Yes, now the Wang has been removed from the personality of the ego, to do the immature, successful transition to a mature, calm and practical business.

Today's U.S. regiment can be a resounding 100 billion yuan sales target, will be proud of Wang at this time the "entrepreneur" management operations. Different from other group buying website decentralization, radical expansion management, Wang's strategy is positioned as "centralized management": from information systems, to contracts for every merchant, to content editors, to finance, to be controlled by Headquarters, and internally to achieve efficiencies that ultimately point to Low-cost, high-quality orders, On this basis to attract a large number of users, improve sales, directed at the profit target.

Mason's overly aggressive expansion, compared with Wang's centralized management, is another big failure of his administration:

In 2010, Groupon extended its tentacles from the United States to 35 countries, and in 2009 it had only 30 markets, and in 2010 it reached some 500 markets; within a year, its total number of users grew 25 times times, from 2 million to more than 50 million; Groupon has been aggressively moving to China, and its march has been as Shan as ever. Groupon is trying to expand its workforce to 1000 in 3 months, according to a media-exposed message.

In this decentralization, in the radical expansion of management, the increase in human costs and marketing costs, Groupon COO Raman has revealed that Groupon in the international market "to complete a deal," the number of employees in the United States market twice times, which means that Groupon in the international market is not very efficient. The consequences of this rapid expansion are: In February 2011, with Tencent in China, and in 2012 the dismal European business also hit Groupon's performance.

Lesson: Premature expansion is easy to sudden death. The founder should at this time the situation, calm analysis of market demand, in their own development and business expansion to maintain a balance.

Summing up, as the founder of the group buying industry-Mason, was "overtaken by the", similar experience this time fell on him. As in previous Wang, they have the same keen sense of the founder's sense of smell, with extraordinary technology, but lack of a "entrepreneurial" literacy. This kind of entrepreneur accomplishment is mature face reality, also is the ability that controls enterprise. This requires founders to endure the hardships of business operations, to be firm in hesitation and calm in temptation.