Jamie Turner, Founder of the 60 Second Marketer and co-author of How to Make Money with Social Media and Go Mobile, was interviewed recently by Don Lemon of CNN. The topic was about Groupon where Don asked “Is Groupon a safe investment?” and “Tell us how Groupon works?”

Groupon is generating a lot of buzz in the marketplace. Here’s a quick fact-sheet for people interested in learning more.

• Groupon is the “fastest growing company ever” (Source: Forbes)
• In 2010, Andrew Mason, the CEO, spurned a buyout offer from Google for $6 billion. (Source: Business Insider)
• Groupon had 11 million visitors in September. LivingSocial had 7 million visitors during the same time period
• 25 million Americans, or about 10% of the adult population, have purchased a coupon from a “deal of the day” website (Source: Harris Interactive)
• About 1 in 5 people don’t redeem their Groupon deal (Source: DailyDealMedia). Groupon keeps the money that’s not redeemed
• Competitors to Groupon include LivingSocial, Bloomspot and Google Offers (which is currently in Beta testing)
• Gowalla recently got out of the deal-of-the-day industry and have evolved into more of a Yelp/foursquare blend
• At one point, Groupon underestimated operating losses by $120 million and inflated revenue by $400 million. (Source: BBC)
• Groupon is the second-highest IPO in history, behind only Google. However, the third highest IPO was Webvan, which tanked a few years later. Buyer beware. (Source: Business Insider)