Groupon No Big Player in China’s Group Buying Market

Groupon launched in China just about a month ago under the name of GaoPeng.com and while the site has been experiencing considerable traffic and successfully growing its user base, it still lacks the sales numbers that would put it in line with the domestic competition.

While Groupon dominates the U.S. group buying and daily deals market, success for the coupon giant may not be so easy in China. There are over 457 million internet users and more than a billion mobile users. At first glance, those numbers alone would appear to make China a successful market for Groupon but there are also well over 4000 similar sites all working to grab a share of China’s consumers.

Michael Kan from IDG News Service says that according to group-buying aggregator Tuan800.com, GaoPeng is out pacing some of China’s most popular group buying sites in terms of traffic but only saw sales of about $289,000 during its first two weeks of operation. This is a poor showing when compared to China’s largest group buying site, Lashou that took in $15.2 million.

As Kan goes on to explain, Groupon has been bending over backwards to attract consumers, or in this case consumers that will buy.

GaoPeng.com first started offering deals in Beijing and Shanghai, with the eventual goal of moving on to other major cities. The site first tried to attract a following in part by awarding Apple iPhones to users who registered as followers on its microblogs. The site has also offered a wide range of deals such as offers for restaurants, dance classes and even DNA testing for children to protect their health.

But Groupon or GaoPeng.com is coming late to the Chinese group buying market and as we’ve seen here in the states, recent start ups have not had an easy time trying to enter the game at this late stage. Groupon may learn that as big as it is here, coming late to the Chinese market may not be to its advantage and basically the shoe is now on the other foot.

Source: PCWorld