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Groupon China entered China as a JV with Tencent  and these two companies created a group buying site called Gaopeng.com Frankly, I am a little surprised that this site did not do well given the mighty brand of Tencent so I am guessing that this JV had some issues in getting leverage internally (this is pure speculation).  The site is by no means closed - the announcement that came out talked of 'streamlining operations' ... corporate speak for 'we need to stop loosing so much money'

I have worked with a group buying site in the past and even did a presentation on Tuangou group buying sites so have some insights about the business issues facing these types of sites. From my understanding the technology used to develop the group buying sites is quite simple, it is the off line commercial agreements that are hard. Specifically, given we have 4000 odd group buying type sites, getting unique offers of the day is quite difficult for the Group buying sites. Couple this with the huge range of similar offers  (Spa treatment, Dinner or hair cut etc) the chances of developing a leading business on this model is increasing difficult.

I predict this is the year we see massive consolidation in this business model. I think GroupOn in the US missed the boat by not taking the Google offer and we will see many Chinese VC funded Group Buying operations run out of cash and fail to get a B round...  Group Buying sites have had their day in the sun... Entrapeunures needs to find a new innovation to copy.