I don't think groupon's demise has anything to do with investment in technology or otherwise. More, they sold local businesses on the idea of giving away deals on the basis that deal takers would become repeat customers. Small businesses soon learnt that deal takers never come back.<p>Althought a small sample size, I learnt this by talking to small businesses who used groupon. All of the them talked about entitled deal takers coming in and upsetting their business.