group buying coupons

Already the global group-buying leader and growing much faster than its competitors, Groupon is getting a lot more funding. For what? For world domination, of course. . .and here's how Groupon is likely to put that new-found cash to work.

While news that Groupon has rebuffed Google's $6 billion offer has stolen the limelight, Amazon's $175 million investment in LivingSocial could end up shaking up the daily-deal business and helping the No. 2 e-coupon company gain ground against Groupon.

Some pundits have decried the Groupon model as easy to emulate, and predicted fierce competition and price wars. Web industry watcher Alex Salkever used to believe that, too -- but not anymore. Here's why.

AOL's fast-growing, hyper-local news company Patch rolled out coupons on its sites last month. So far, the coupons appear to be of the traditional variety, but considering Patch's overall strategy and boots-on-the-local-ground base, I'd bet that it has a Groupon-clone under development.