From $30.00 to $90 million: RetailMeNot

http://www.zdnet.com.au/from-30-00-to-90-million-retailmenot-339307735.htm

by bootload • 16 years ago

56 13 16 years ago

zdnet.com.au

bennyk• 16 years ago

It seems like these two really earned what they got. They got ahead of a trend and developed a useful and popular real product.And that they know that their developers are responsible for the success of the site speak highly of them as quality entrepreneur in the best sense

makmanalp• 16 years ago

Retailmenot is the best. They even have a time based graph of whether the coupons worked or not, so you can tell if a coupon has genuinely expired by looking at the graph.

mikeknoop3• 16 years ago

RetailMeNot was not their first attempt. RetailMeNot was based on BugMeNot if i recall correctly (for bypassing mandatory login systems).

Out of curiosity, anyone know their revenue model for bringing in $30 Million a year?

sounddust• 16 years ago

Linking the coupon codes to affiliate links via onClick so that you're forced to click on them in order to copy/paste the code.

mikeknoop3• 16 years ago

That's pretty ingenious. Though if I were a company offering affiliate links I am not sure I would put up with this process. I imagine the majority of customers are already committed to buying from a specific company and just want to check if any coupons exist.

zach2• 16 years ago

A classic pivot. They used BugMeNot's audience and reach to slingshot RetailMeNot into a huge site.

You would be forgiven for having written them off from where they started with BugMeNot. You look at that site and say, "How in the world can you monetize that traffic?!" I mean, Reddit users may be a tough audience, but at least most of them registered!

But they had good resources and obviously had the resourcefulness. Resourcefulness and resources. What else could you need?

SeanDav• 16 years ago

"King and Clark can lay a fair claim to helping start the coupon movement over half a decade ago."

This is the money quote for me. It just shows the sheer speed at which the internet works, or maybe it is just me getting old...

percept• 16 years ago

"helping start the coupon movement over half a decade ago"

Whoa, that's incorrect.

Coupon sites aren't a new development and go back to at least the late 90s. One example is FlamingoWorld, started in 1998 and by 2001 was reportedly earning its owner over a million dollars annually. And it was hardly the first such site.

Edit: I should add that RMN was innovative in its design--it was like "Coupons 2.0" and I'm sure this helped a lot in growing its user base.

juddlyon• 16 years ago

Here's a link to WhaleShark Media, the Austin, TX company that purchased RetailMeNot: http://www.whalesharkmedia.com/

From $30.00 to $90 million: RetailMeNot

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