Coupon Sites Reached 19 Percent North American Users in December

Coupon sites such as Groupon and LivingSocial reached 18.8 percent of the U.S. Internet population in December, according to data from comScore.

On a global basis, coupon sites reached 6.9 percent of users, the measurement firm estimated, while penetration in Europe reached 9.6 percent of users, having grown by 5.7 percentage points compared with December 2009.

Much of the European growth was driven by Groupon, the data suggests, which made significant strides in Europe over the course of the year. In December 2009, coupon sites reached 13.3 million users, while in December 2010, Groupon alone reached 12.3 million.