Daily-deal site Groupon has created striking waves throughout the entire web since its launch. Speculated by many to be one of the fastest growing online businesses ever and raising an impressive $170 million in funding throughout only 2 years, it definitely has a remarkable portfolio. Nevertheless, this fame is equally balanced by its lack of a functioning business model, and executive dishonesty, as uncovered by Jesse H.’s from Rice University, and posted on the WSJ blog.

“The Rice study found that 66% of the 150 merchants responding found the program profitable, while 32% said they were unprofitable. Forty percent of the respondents said they would not run such a promotion again. Groupon founder and Chief Executive Andrew Mason recently wrote that 97% of its merchants want to be featured on the site again…”

Groupon is undoubtedly one of the most customer-oriented website around, but when it comes to the second part of the equation, but it’s the merchants that seem to have somewhat lost their interest.  With some small businesses referring to the site as the “single worst decision I have ever made as a business owner” and even coming to the point where the discount (and a $8,000 loss followed by a highly-noticed blog post from the business owner) takes over actual profit, Groupon is not the optimal promotional method around.

Groupon is getting a huge amount of attention throughout the 230 markets it currently features worldwide, and with more and more businesses and merchants modeling themselves around the innovative site, the exposure of the real statistics and real people involved is deemed to strike waves in the near future. This is only amplified by the clearly false features arriving from Groupon’s very own ‘disoriented’ CEO.