The fastest growing company ever

Subject: The fastest growing company ever Wed Aug 18, 2010 5:11 am

Andrew Mason figured out how to inject hysteria into the process of bargain hunting on the web. The result is an overnight success story called Groupon.

At least Mark Zuckerberg wrote a few lines of computer code at Harvard before he left to launch Facebook. Now Andrew Mason, a relaxed and lanky 29-year-old music major from Northwestern, has managed to build the fastest-growing company in web history. Groupon represents what the dot-com boom was supposed to be all about: huge sales, easy profits and solid connection between bricks-and-mortar retailers and online consumers.

Groupon, a name that blends "group" and "coupon," presents an online audience with deep discounts on a product or service. Act now, says the pitch: you have only so many hours before this offer expires. That's a familiar come-on, but it's coupled with a novel element: you get the deal only if a certain number of fellow citizens buy the same thing on the same day. It's a cents-off coupon married to a Boxing Day shopping frenzy.

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The fastest growing company ever

The fastest growing company ever

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