Glimmers of frustration showed in a humor-laced three-page memo written with characteristic dry wit. Mason, whose company is speeding toward an IPO that sources pin around September, defended the use of a controversial accounting metric that was eventually dropped, and dismissed concerns about competition from the likes of Google and Facebook.
The soon-to-married Mason revealed in the memo, first printed on tech blog All Things Digital and confirmed to Reuters by a source close to the CEO, that U.S. revenue should jump about 12 percent in August from July, while marketing expenses are expected to slide 20 percent.
"While we've bitten our tongues and allowed insane accusations ... to go unchallenged publicly, it's important to me that you have the context necessary to brush this stuff off," Mason addressed employees in his memo.
Mason argued that rival services were "small and not growing" and waved off accusations Groupon was "buying customers" by splurging on marketing -- two key concerns on Wall Street ahead of its market debut.
"Even if we wanted to continue to spend at these levels, we would eventually run out of new subscribers to acquire," he wrote. "The real point is that our business is a lot harder to build than people realize and our scale creates competitive advantages that even the largest technology companies are having trouble penetrating."
Analysts say Groupon's IPO plans had been dented by a stock market slump and new financial disclosures that suggest the daily-deal company's business is slowing in North America.
In its latest IPO filing this month, it dropped the use of "adjusted consolidated segment operating income," or ACSOI, a much-debated measure that excludes online marketing expenses, stock-based compensation and acquisition-related items.
Marketing expenses account for almost a fifth of revenue, an atypically high proportion but one that should drop over time as more people signed on for email alerts and eventually became customers, Mason said in Thursday's memo.
The CEO also lashed out at reports that Groupon was shutting more than 10 offices around China and laying off hundreds of employees at its Gaopeng venture with Tencent Holdings.
The Wall Street Journal reported both companies as describing a "change in strategy".
"What about our joint-venture with Tencent in China? Did you read the article that Gaopeng's CEO has kidnapped the first-born children of all our employees and is putting them to work building a laser beam he'll use to slice the moon in half?" Mason wrote, tongue-in-cheek.
"It turns out that that one isn't true either. China is definitely a different market, but every month we inch closer to profitability."
Ks !KansasxqvM joined in and replied with this 15 years ago, 4 minutes later[^][v]#200,610
Eh, they're just getting a lot of heat because they're the biggest boomer in a new type of market. I'll be investing in them when I can.
ltamake !!onnLC5KY8 joined in and replied with this 15 years ago, 15 minutes later, 19 minutes after the original post[^][v]#200,620
@previous (Ks !KansasxqvM)
They're a company without revenue though. Their business model is flawed.
Ks !KansasxqvM replied with this 15 years ago, 19 minutes later, 38 minutes after the original post[^][v]#200,624
@previous (ltamake !!onnLC5KY8)
Expanding and growing has been and will be the most important thing to do. Once they've established the proper-sized customer base (determined by their model) they will readjust things to gear towards profit. It's a classic model really, they certainly could be raking in the profits, but now is not the time.
Anonymous D joined in and replied with this 15 years ago, 12 minutes later, 50 minutes after the original post[^][v]#200,631
@previous (Ks !KansasxqvM)
Isn't that what people were saying about YouTube? Even today it's barely making any profit.
Ks !KansasxqvM replied with this 15 years ago, 1 minute later, 52 minutes after the original post[^][v]#200,634
@previous (D)
I believe it is, but Youtube is still kind of an experiment, groupon is more of a new twist on an old concept.
LatestDude !!nEftABMoF joined in and replied with this 15 years ago, 7 minutes later, 1 hour after the original post[^][v]#200,636