text: We think the technologies visible to consumers will be increasingly commoditized, 
  while the data used to understand consumers better will become increasingly proprietary 
  and valuable. 
  
  Offers to consumers can be intelligently served up based on a person's demographics, 
  buying history and location. The merchant side of the equation is just as interesting. 
  Local businesses need to be able to do more than just run a sale once or twice a year. 
  The theater on Main Street or the children's museum across town should have the ability 
  to revenue optimize, like United Airlines or Hilton, by appropriately pricing and 
  marketing unsold capacity. We started really leaning forward in our chairs when the 
  discussion turned to strategy, including the ways to use data to power Groupon's future 
  consumer- and merchant-facing products. 
  
  We believe Groupon is the break-out leader in the massive local commerce space and its 
  investment in data will be a critical ingredient in its long term march to build a 
  meaningful and foundational company. 
  
  Groupon is the clear market leader in the local deals market in 2011. However, complaints from 
  
  merchants about the money they can loss by offering deals via Groupon already exist. Now, 
  
  couldn't all the "local deals" raw information be considered as Public Data that merchants could (be 