When Groupon acquired SoSasta, we called it a very sasta deal (sasta = cheap, in Hindi). Here is what we wrote
“SoSasta doesn’t really have a traffic comparable to its counterparts, i.e. Snapdeal, Taggle etc and this deal probably gives Groupon just a theoretical presence in a high-growth market, i.e. India. Unlike US and other markets, the Groupon way of selling, i.e. telephonic sales do not work in India and expect Groupon to pivot its operational model, if they are really in the game.”
A whole lot of stuff happened post this acquisition and the worst was hacking of SoSasta DB, post which Groupon removed its logo from SoSasta website.
Yesterday (Oct 3rd), Groupon issued a statement that it has re-branded its India business as Crazeal.com ( www.crazeal.com ).
– Ankur Warikoo has been named the CEO of Crazeal.com and will be responsible for growing the business in India. An alumnus of the Indian School of Business, more recently Ankur co-founded Accentium Web and served as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Rocket Internet GmbH.
– Has appointed Bharath Devanathan as COO and Sachin Kapur as Head of Marketing . A graduate of INSEAD, Bharath has worked at Yahoo and Booz & Company before joining Crazeal. As Head of marketing, Sachin will be tasked with building the brand across cities. With close to a decade of diversified experience in the online and media industry, Sachin has worked on brands like BigRock (a Directi company), Fever 104 FM, and InfoEdge India Ltd.
The company has appointed a core team of six Sales Directors in Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Kolkata to build the Local Service, National Products and National Travel verticals.
The key question is:
a. What happened to Groupon trademark in India? The legal battle is still on.
b. What’s the update on SoSasta website? It is still running – shouldn’t it be redirected to Crazeal.com? Oh wait! SoSasta domain is still owned (whois data) by Ananya Bubna, SoSasta founder who is no longer with Groupon India.
Like we have been saying on Pluggd.in, India is a fresh start for Groupon – right from branding to sales process and the company needs to really treat it like a startup (and stop committing stupid marketing mistakes).
Recommended Read:
- What’s Common Between Groupon and LivingSocial in India? [Hint: Ads Without Landing Pages]
- The Super Duper List of Groupon Clones in India [28 and counting]
