Daily Fun Fact for 12/4/2011

Gropeon® Inc. was a little-known sister division of Groupon® Inc. that specialized in collective couponing for adult merchandise. Gropeon® founders soon realized the miniscule customer base could not sustain the massive discounts that retailers were offering and sought additional avenues to convey traffic to the site.

The “Gropeon® Top 5!” incentivized celebrity groping and encouraged users to check the site often to discover the top celebrity gropers. The celebrity groper of the month earned notoriety as well as exclusive TV, movie, or music contracts.

Hollywood became awash in hysteria and groping incidents within hours of the site’s launch. Tyra Banks, who accrued an impressive 3 gropes (Katherine McPhee, Rosie O’Donnell, and Cookie Monster) in three days, described Sunset Boulevard as “out of control. You’d see Jessica Alba loitering outside the liquor store salivating and stretching out her hands as men sauntered by. She was as fearsome of a predator as I’ve ever seen, like a starving lion chasing down the sickliest gazelle as prey. You’d hear a scream, turn around, and see a herd of men running to the nearest police officer, crumpling at their feet in terror. It was a dangerous time for everyone.”

Celebrity gawkers flooded the site, causing overnight site traffic to hit 3 million page views. Google took note of the advertising potential of the site and offered 6 billion for Groupon® Inc.

The aftermath wasn’t pretty. The FBI shut down Gropeon® in the beginning of 2011 because the site led to a “demonstrable spike in serial gropings across the country.”

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