The Gay Groupon Launches

Poor Groupon. Aside from being one of the most over-hyped and destined to flameout internet companies since Kozmo, they face hordes of competitors who have not only jumped on their concept, but use similar names as well. Via Techcrunch, here's the backstory on Gaypon:

Before becoming a Gaypon merchant, businesses are put through a background check of sorts, where they are investigated for any bad marks, like complaints of discrimination from customers and employees, poor hiring practices, etc. Gaypon says it also uses various tools, like the Human Rights Campaign’s “Corporate Equality Index” that rates American workplaces on gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender equality. Gaypon plans to donate a portion of proceeds to charitable organizations, and those that support the gay community, like The Trevor Project, which focuses on crisis and suicide prevention amongst LGBTQ youth, and Affirmations, which is one of the largest LGBT community centers in the United States. The exact percentage of those donations, however, is unclear.

Just a few days ago, a good friend idly wondered why there was no gay version of Groupon. I pointed to the very short-lived Fab.com (nee Fabulis) as the reason. I don't have a lot of faith in Gaypon either, but I wish them well.

RELATED: You won't actually feel too sorry for Groupon after reading last month's Vanity Fair feature about its founder.