Is Groupon's business model really so easily duplicated?

The business model can be copied, but their scale is currently what keeps their position defensible. Right now, its really a two horse race, with GroupOn and Living Social in the lead.  Other sites like GiltCity still have room to succeed, but they're niche and won't get to be the same size. The reason size helps protect their position is that its extremely hard for other startups to acquire enough users cheap enough.  With so many people bidding for ad words, targeting the same potential subscribers, those acquisition costs are going up.

It's got to be about reach, wal-mart has it just from existing customers, same with amazon.  Groupon had the toughest part, gaining public trust this system from scratch (which I have to admit, I don't know if it's entirely true yet based on my personal poor groupon experiences)...  Imagine if there had been a heavy-hitter partner to start with to develop this consumer trust, that would be huge, the best sight is always hindsight, I guess.

As a previous owner of a white label daily deal site I can tell you duplicating the daily deal business model is not as easy as it sounds. If you want to be successful, you need to be reputable, have/acquire a database of 5,000-10,000 people, and have a user friendly website/interface for your customers to interact with. Finding a niche in the daily deal arena and personality (in your site that is) are helpful too. Groupon is developing new models with their funding and analytics to improve the group buying space. I have often wondered how long Groupon's business model would last. 5 years? 10 years? but they are developing additional innovative strategies that are similar to their current model. My guess is they'll be around for a long time.