Groupon logo disappears
By Bala Shah

In Jan, 2011, news broke that America’s biggest Deal / Coupon site Groupon had bought Indian site SoSasta with the intention of expanding into India. 

After buying SoSasta, Groupon put up their logo on the Indian site.

In June, 2011, SoSasta got hacked.   And what was one of Groupon’s responses?  Pluggd.in is reporting that Groupon removed their logo from their own site SoSasta!

All a bit bizarre.  What did Groupon hope to achieve by quietly removing their own logo from their property?

(Techgoss had published the following of March 4, 2011)

Groupon India returned
By Bala Shah

Groupon, launched in November 2008 in USA, features a daily deal on the best stuff to do, eat, see and buy in more than 500 markets around the world. Groupon uses collective buying power to offer unbeatable prices and provide a win-win for businesses and consumers, delivering more than 650 daily deals globally.  It is so successful that in Jan it received an investment of $950 Million. It dominates the American market.

On Jan 12, 2011, I had reported on how a Bangalore based site Groupoff had quietly registered groupon.in and was diverting all traffic to Groupon.in to its own site.  I had asked Groupon USA: Are you going to get hold of groupon.in?  (Article republished below)

Looks like Groupon USA could not resist a good deal and moved to gain control of groupon.in.  One legal letter to GroupOff and Groupon.in was handed over to Groupon.com in USA.

Domain Tools tells us that on Feb 23, 2011 Groupon.in reverted to its rightful owners Groupon in USA.

“
Domain ID:D3788576-AFIN
Domain Name:GROUPON.IN
Created On:12-Sep-2009 15:17:51 UTC
Last Updated On:23-Feb-2011 14:27:36 UTC
Expiration Date:12-Sep-2012 15:17:51 UTC
Sponsoring Registrar:Enom Inc. (R46-AFIN)
Status:OK
“

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(Techgoss had published the following on Jan 12, 2011)

Groupon India taken over
By Bala Shah

Groupon, launched in November 2008 in USA, features a daily deal on the best stuff to do, eat, see and buy in more than 500 markets around the world. Groupon uses collective buying power to offer unbeatable prices and provide a win-win for businesses and consumers, delivering more than 650 daily deals globally.  It is so successful that this week it received an investment of $950 Million. It dominates the American market.

Indian media has been speculating since early this week that Groupon would expand into India as well.

Yesterday (Jan 11, 2011), I shot off an email to the Groupon Media Relations asking them the following two questions

-  There is some talk in India that you have purchased a Calcutta based Company.  Any comment on it?

-  An Indian site Groupoff is redirecting groupon.in to its own site.  Are you going to get hold of groupon.in?

Very promptly, Groupon replied to my query saying that they were expanding into India, Israel and South Africa.  Coincidentally, on Jan 11, they made it public via a press release to all media organizations that they had taken over Indian company SoSasta.

But Groupon USA was silent about how they would deal with Bangalore based ‘Group Buying site’ GroupOff who have registered the domain name Groupon.in and are directing all its traffic to GroupOff.com.

5,4.3,2 … Expect a legal case soon.