Groupon was originally called The Point before becoming Groupon.
Andrew Mason launched The Point in 2007 as a platform for collective action. Users could propose an action that would happen only if enough people joined, creating a threshold-based system.
The site did not gain broad traction, but one feature attracted attention: group buying. In 2008, Mason and his team tested a deal for discounted pizza in Chicago. That experiment became the basis for Groupon, whose name combines “group” and “coupon.”
Groupon is sometimes confused with LivingSocial, another daily-deals company that became prominent around the same period. The Point was the earlier name of Groupon itself, not a separate company acquired by it. Groupon later expanded internationally and became one of the best-known examples of the daily-deals startup model.