Why Groupon is not in Australia (domain squatter) • Hacker News Board

Re: Why Groupon is not in Australia (domain squatter)

#51

Post by josephcooney » Wed, Jan 05, 2011, 6:09 PM UTC

gstar wrote: post #12

lwat wrote: post #3

As an Australian all I want to say is... just use the .com address. Call the company 'groupon.com' Advertise the .com. It will work!

Australians are pretty apt to type .com.au - it'd be a risky trading environment when that address belonged to one of your competitors and seemed legitimate.

Apt to type .com.au - Really? As a red-blooded Australian I can't recall the last time I typed .com.au. Sometimes I look at it as an indicator for e-commerce purposes, but it doesn't count for much, at least to me.

Re: Why Groupon is not in Australia (domain squatter)

#52

Post by awa » Wed, Jan 05, 2011, 9:51 PM UTC

cubicle67 wrote: post #29

mahmud wrote: post #22

9MSN and Microsoft are partnering to launch Cudo: http://cudo.com.au/ConfirmUser

which has one of the most annoying entry screens ever. It forces to you create an account before you can even see what the site it about

Really, I was able to click on the cudo logo and it redirected me to today's deal in sydney at http://cudo.com.au/sydney . I guess you can try entering other cities names and it should redirect to deals in those cities. This is very similar to Groupon (and infact a tad easier)

Re: Why Groupon is not in Australia (domain squatter)

#53

Post by khafra » Thu, Jan 06, 2011, 3:36 PM UTC

tjmc wrote: post #32

cubicle67 wrote: post #31

I don't have a side to take in this, but I think it should be pointed out that scoopon have a real business that's been going some time and seems to be reasonably profitable. The name thing seems a bit underhanded, but I think it's disingenuous to simply label them domain squatters [Edit: I think I may have a bias against US companies intruding on Australian turf. The whole ugg boot saga has left a pretty sour taste]

Agreed. My wife's business recently did a deal on Scoopon and they were great to deal with. What a pity that they've resorted to gazumping a competitor for their trademark and domain here. Totally unnecessary and disappointing.

Tangentially, I was astounded and gratified to find out that "gazumping" is a real word: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gazumping

Re: Why Groupon is not in Australia (domain squatter)

#54

Post by Nick_C » Fri, Jan 07, 2011, 5:36 AM UTC

awa wrote: post #52

cubicle67 wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

which has one of the most annoying entry screens ever. It forces to you create an account before you can even see what the site it about

Really, I was able to click on the cudo logo and it redirected me to today's deal in sydney at http://cudo.com.au/sydney . I guess you can try entering other cities names and it should redirect to deals in those cities. This is very similar to Groupon (and infact a tad easier)

I couldn't. It wanted my email address to go any further. I quit then.