Groupon deal sees movie chain sell 30k tickets in 11 hours

This is pretty cool. A deal for movie tickets on the South African iteration of group-buying deals site Groupon has set new sales records in that country.

A Ster Kinekor movie ticket deal that went live at twelve o’clock last night saw Groupon sell 30 000 tickets by mid-morning, averaging 32 tickets a minute since going live. It was anticipated that the deal would take three days to sell out and instead was closed within half a day.

“The success is testament to South Africans love of the cinema experience and their love for a good deal. We at Groupon pride ourselves in our ability to provide the South African public the experiences they enjoy at an affordable price,” says Daniel Guasco, CEO of Groupon South Africa.

Things haven’t always been easy for the company, which entered the country in January 2011.

The company frequently features on South African consumer advocacy site Hello Peter with complaints about everything from an inability to unsubscribe from the service’s mailing lists, to a failure to deliver vouchers and poor customer service.

The group-buying giant has also been taken to task by the Advertising Standards Authority of South Africa.