Groupon Sneaks Out Horrible Diversity Report Before Alibaba IPO
Tech titans slowly began releasing their diversity numbers earlier this year as a well-intentioned conversation starter about the industry's troubling sameness. But as the disclosures pressed on, companies began burying their reports, hoping no one would notice how truly terrible their gender and racial breakdowns are. Why not? The tactic worked for Twitter.
Groupon—once the darling of the stock market, now the Zynga of e-commerce—is the latest firm to play down its public statistics. The company dumped their report earlier this morning, just before the biggest tech stock offering of the year and the new iPhone went on sale.
breaking: groupon does terrible diversity numbers news dump during BABA day
— ಠ_ಠ (@MikeIsaac) September 19, 2014
So far, it's working. Sites like TechCrunch are scrambling to pound out pieces on the lines of fanboys and resellers waiting for new iPhones, but there's not a word on Groupon.
But why even bother hiding the numbers? Dismal reports like these may bring a fleeting wave of middling press, but they are certainly no threat to the business. And none of these companies' numbers are any more awful than the others—Groupon included.
As Groupon's report notes, the company is 71 percent white and their tech team is 82 percent male. Those figures are within the margins of the industry's grim norm.
In typical fashion, Groupon goes on to mention that they could do a better job at making the 12,000 employee company more diverse:
Like many of our tech industry peers, we recognize that there is more we can do. As a company that is just six years old, our inclusion and diversity programs are evolving alongside our business.
They could start by not hiding the problem.