Rocky Agrawal's Take On GroupOn

Image via CrunchBaseRocky's premise that the whole daily deals business is crap, well, I don't buy into that. I am at the other end of the spectrum on that thinking. I think they are onto something cutting edge.

What Fascinates Me About GroupOn
My Web Diagram

Unless Google would be willing to employ thousands of salespeople, Google and others can not compete with GroupOn, but in employing those salespeople Google will have veered from its core so far that that stretch might end up hurting its core businesses. Google is better off doing smart cars and wind farms in the vast oceans and monorails.

Dave McClure: Fighting Words For The Angel List

If you follow tech in the blogosphere, it is hard to miss out on Dave McClure. I read this blog post of his the day it came out, but only today found out he was one of the people behind something called the Silicon Valley Microfinance Network. This guy is of interest. I have been meaning to comment on his post about The Angle List.

The Angel List Controversy, Fred's Marketing Controversy

Is GroupOn Like YouTube?

Image via WikipediaFor one I was thinking GroupOn was not going to want to get bought. It had a great independent future, I thought. But perhaps the GroupOn founders felt like they were a one trick pony, and they were not going to be able to ride the imagination wave year in year out, and another hot company will show up, the buzz will move on. And Google wanted the sexy back bad.

The Yipit Iterations, Pivots And Turnaround

Image via CrunchBaseI first visited Vin Vacanti's blog perhaps a year and a half ago. We might have exchanged an email: hello! Back then his blog looked like it got updated once every few months. I had never met him. It was the depth of the recession. Although to a startup that has not made it yet, can look like the curtain is down for no explainable reason.

Etsy, GroupOn, Zynga

Image via CrunchBase
Steven Carpenter

On Etsy

While eBay saw its marketplace growth stagnate at just over $1 billion a quarter, I see several areas Etsy must optimize just to pass $100 million in business

On GroupOn

No other startup has gone more quickly from launch to $1 billion+ in valuation except YouTube (12 months), which Groupon achieved in 16 months .... Groupon is achieving considerable revenue growth across all measures: more customers, higher deal prices, and rapidly expanding markets. ..... makes its model highly attractive (hence, every week seems to bring new copycats). .... Groupon gets more of its traffic from Facebook than any other site, including Google ...... the company does not hold any physical inventory and its customer acquisition costs are so low. ..... Groupon has raised a total of $171 million to-date, employs more than 200 people, and serves 52 markets. Its next biggest competitor, LivingSocial, has raised $49 million, employs about 50 people, and serves 14 markets. .... Groupon is far ahead. The data suggests that Groupon is not yet feeling the impact of all the new entrants. ..... There is no reason to believe that this concept couldn’t be extended to virtually any category or service provider.

On Zynga

Like YouTube, Twitter, and Groupon, social gaming pioneer, Zynga is a member of the “fastest from founding to $1B valuation” club, having earned its membership in just 19 months. .... over half of Facebook users are playing Zynga’s games .... Farmville alone now attracts over 100 million unique users per month, just 10 months after it launched. ..... PayPal said last week that Zynga is now its 2nd largest customer by volume ..... “Zynga Nation” ...... the beneficiary of a once-in-a-decade tectonic shift in the Internet landscape. ..... Zynga accounts for 31% of all active applications on Facebook, more than 2 times Facebook’s own apps ..... The company also continues to sit on a warchest of its largely unspent $219 million in venture capital that it was able to raise because of its rapid success. ..... Zynga’s incredible hockey stick growth of the past 2 years appears to have come to an end .... Games are the No. 1 application in the Apple App Store. Collectively mobile games are a $3B+ a year business

These three companies, especially Zynga and GroupOn, have grown very, very rapidly. Their rise has been dizzying. I have a feeling we will see more and more rapid rise companies. So when I ask, which is the next Zynga, I am not necessarily talking of the social gaming space. Actually, I am not. I am asking, what could be that next space that will create that next rapid rise company?

A lot of the action is moving to the mobile web space.

Related articles

• Zynga: The Google Of Games? (technbiz.blogspot.com)
• Facebook, Zynga charge fees for share sales (sfgate.com)
• Facebook, Zynga Impose Pre-IPO Fees (businessweek.com)
• Facebook, Zynga Impose Fees on Private Sales of Shares (Douglas MacMillan/Bloomberg) (techmeme.com)
• Facebook, Zynga Impose Fees on Private Sales of Shares (businessweek.com)
• AOL Joins the Daily Deal Movement with Groupon-Like Site (mashable.com)
• The Headache Of Share Trading For Facebook And Zynga (allfacebook.com)
• Fastest-Growing Facebook Pages (forbes.com)
• For 'Zynga to become the Google of games,' it will take more than good timing (games.com)
• Facebook, Zynga Add Fees to Stock Sales, as Early Employees Consider Sale Options (insidefacebook.com)