Definition :

Groupon is a marketing service that offers its subscribers daily discount coupons by email, Facebook and Twitter feeds. Typical Groupon deals focus on local restaurants, stores, services, events and regional products. Today, there are thirty-five million registered Groupon users worldwide.

The name Groupon is a combination of the words “group” and “coupon,” which references the company’s viral marketing business model. The goal of a viral approach to marketing is to encourage Groupon members to pass marketing messages on to other sites and users, creating a potentially exponential growth in the message’s visibility and effect. Groupon’s deals are only offered for a certain amount of time — typically twenty-four hours — and a discount coupon will only become active if a pre-determined number of people commit to purchasing the advertised product or service.

Further Reading :

Book: The Lean Startup by Eric Ries