Groupon Starts China Service; Tencent, Alibaba's Jack Ma Among Investors
Groupon Inc., owner of the biggest coupon website, said it started an online group-buying service in China as consumers in the world’s fastest-growing major economy increase spending over the Internet.
The Gaopeng.com website will initially cover Beijing and Shanghai before expanding to other major Chinese cities, Chicago-based Groupon said in an e-mailed statement today. Tencent Holdings Ltd., China’s biggest Internet company, and Yunfeng Capital, a private equity fund started by Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. Chairman Jack Ma, are other investors in Gaopeng, according to the statement, which didn’t provide details of the shareholding.
Groupon’s Gaopeng.com will face competition in attracting Internet shoppers from Chinese group-buying services including Lashou.com and Meituan.com. Online retail sales in China almost doubled last year to 513.1 billion yuan ($78 billion) and will probably double again in the next two years to 1 trillion yuan, Xinhua News Agency reported Jan. 18.
Groupon, which rejected a $6 billion takeover bid from Google Inc. in December, plans to increase the number of employees at its China venture to 1,000 in three months from 120 staff, Danny Yeung, head of its Hong Kong unit, said Feb. 10.
Alibaba Group, controlled by Ma, is China’s biggest e- commerce company. The Hangzhou, eastern China-based company’s Alibaba.com Ltd. unit last week said David Wei resigned as Chief Executive Officer after an internal probe found more than 2,300 vendors used its website to defraud global buyers.
To contact the reporter on this story: Mark Lee in Hong Kong at wlee37@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Young-Sam Cho at ycho2@bloomberg.net
The Groupon Inc. Gaopeng.com Website Arranged On a Computer
Nelson Ching/Bloomberg
The Groupon Inc. Gaopeng.com website is arranged for a photograph in Beijing.
The Groupon Inc. Gaopeng.com website is arranged for a photograph in Beijing. Photographer: Nelson Ching/Bloomberg
March 1 (Bloomberg) -- Jin Yoon, an analyst at Nomura Holdings Inc. in Hong Kong, talks about the outlook for Youku.com Inc., Groupon Inc. and Alibaba.com Ltd. Youku, the largest online video site in China, has raised advertising rates this year, which will help the company move toward profitability, Chief Executive Officer Victor Koo said last month. Yoon speaks with Rishaad Salamat on Bloomberg Television's "On the Move Asia." (Source: Bloomberg)
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