2 of 6
BACKNEXT
<a href=http://www.groupon.com>Groupon</a>
Crowdsourcing your coupons

While Groupon's spot on this short list is a no-brainer, it's still worth noting how far it's come in two years. The daily deals site, which offers heavily discounted goods and services from local businesses, operates under a group-focused principle. If enough people sign up for an offer, everyone gets that deal; if the offer fails to enlist enough buyers, then no one gets it.

What started out as a web niche became a phenomenon. Groupon's staff of 1,000 employees services businesses in 300 markets and 35 countries. When all is said and done, it's expected the company could book more than $2 billion in sales this year, making it the dominating player in its space. It's no surprise that few Groupon offers fail these days. But what did fail is Google's (GOOG) reported $6 billion buyout offer, as the company has decided to keep growing alone, for now at least.



NEXT: Heroku
Last updated December 28 2010: 5:31 AM ET
More Galleries
5 biggest share buybacks of 2014 Stock repurchases are booming. These five companies are ready to spend over $79 billion on buybacks. More
10 horrifying corporate mascots McDonald's Happy is part of a long lineage of creatures great and small that shill for products and mortify consumers. Mr. Mucus, anyone? More
5 best cities to launch a career The top spots in the U.S. for new grads to land a job -- and actually enjoy life -- according to financial site WalletHub. More

Most stock quote data provided by BATS. Market indices are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET. Disclaimer. Morningstar: © 2018 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Factset: FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2018. All rights reserved. Chicago Mercantile Association: Certain market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. Dow Jones: The Dow Jones branded indices are proprietary to and are calculated, distributed and marketed by DJI Opco, a subsidiary of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and have been licensed for use to S&P Opco, LLC and CNN. Standard & Poor's and S&P are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. All content of the Dow Jones branded indices © S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC 2018 and/or its affiliates.