Hacker News Reader

Comment by k2enemy | Hacker News Reader

Most of the companies in the "software eating the world" manifesto are not doing so hot. I guess after eating retail, something else ate Groupon.

https://a16z.com/2011/08/20/why-software-is-eating-the-world...

View on HN

Groupon was insane at launch. I got to do so many fun things at a STEEP discount for what, maybe 1-2 years?

Then companies realized people like me don't return after I soak one time in a flotation chamber or indoor skydive etc...

Then the deals got worse once the fun places stopped participating, and I lost interest as I don't currently have a need for an 8% discount on a museum ticket.

Feels like another great example of VC-subsisized awesomeness that was facing an inevitable death once it became unsustainable.

In this case was also subsidized by the companies offering the deals. And I guess they had less money to waste than VCs...

Also, keep in mind, Groupon was launched in 2008. So it shouldn't be a surprise that, immediately after a huge recession that heavy discounting for consumer goods would be a good business model.

I argued endlessly with my spouse not to buy these deals. There was a lot of FOMO at the time and poor purchase decisions being made. She learned her lesson when we couldn't fit a $200+ Lake Michigan boat ride she purchased into our schedule and we had to eat it. I bet that happened to a lot of people and they significantly reduced their Groupon usage.

Groupon was riding a wave and that wave crashed.

Yeah, I got in on some Dave and Busters groupon deal that seemed good, but I never seemed to find a time to go. I offered it up on a work email list the day or two before it expired if someone could use it that day, and a coworker said he was able to go with his son, so it more or less worked out, but I don't think I've used Groupon since then.

Glad to hear you both made it through unscathed.

The basic thesis, "More and more major businesses and industries are being run on software and delivered as online services" does still seem to be directionally correct. It isn't the full story, atoms still matter, but the big change was that that many non-tech incumbents finally woke-up to the need to improve their technology game.

>many non-tech incumbents finally woke-up to the need to improve their technology game

And when this started to happen, most of the "disruptors" looking to eat the lunch of these established companies instantly lost their moat, or the illusion of a moat.

Groupon was never software or tech or even group buying.

It was crowdfunded small business loans. The owner of a restaurant or service business could decide to take a loan now to increase capital flow in exchange for promising to pay out some multiple of that amount in goods and services over the coming year.

Blows my mind that the investors didn't realize this.

I think the premise was they were solving information asymmetry + price discrimination issues? Coupons are a still a thing, groupon was just online coupons which remains a seemingly useful thing.

That's pretty much the same business model as RewardsNetworks. At least one part of it.

Software is still eating the world, but a large part of it are being done by traditional companies transforming themselves.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com