Groupon China’s New Owner Nets $40 Million in Funding for Daily Deals Expansion
You might recall that in June of this year, Groupon China was merged with larger daily deals rival FTuan into a company called GroupNet. And now GroupNet’s CEO, Lin Ning, has revealed that it has recently netted $40 million in funding. The investment is thought to have been led by Groupon (NASDAQ:GRPN) and Chinese web giant Tencent (HKG:0700), but that’s not confirmed by offiicial channels.
今年の6月に、Groupon Chinaが同社より規模の大きいライバル企業のFTuanと合併し、GroupNetと企業名を変えたことを覚えている人もいるだろう。そのGroupNetの最高経営責任者Lin Ning氏が、最近の資金調達で4000万ドルを獲得したことを明らかにした。この投資は、Groupon(NASDAQ:GRPN)と中国ウェブ企業大手のTencent(HKG:0700)によって先導されたと見られているが、公式ルートでの確認はされていない。
今年6月、Groupon China が、より大きなライバル社FTuan と合併してGroupNetという会社になったのを思い出す方もあるだろう。そして今、GroupNetのCEOである Lin Ning氏は、最近、資金提供で4000万ドルの純益を上げたことを明らかにした。出資は、Groupon(NASDAQ:GRPN)と中国のウェブ巨大企業Tencent(HKG:0700)によって主導されたと考えられているが、公式ルートを通しては確認されていない。
This year’s merger was masterminded by Tencent, which already had an undisclosed stake in Ftuan and was also the official local partner for Groupon in China. As a part of the merger deal, GroupNet also runs Tencent’s own QQ Tuan daily deals site. It’s believed that FTuan – which attracted three major funding rounds already before its amalgamation – still holds the majority of the stake in GroupNet.
The investment is interesting as Lin Ning said that it will be used to acquire some smaller deals sites – so we might finally be seeing some of the tens of thousands of group buy sites in China get a meaningful exit. As opposed to collapsing in financial ruin, which is the way that thousands of them are going each year.
Lin Ning also revealed that GroupNet gets many merger proposals each day, and that the troubled 24Quan – which recently suspended operations – is one target that it might actually go for. Any acquisitions will be a case of buying users, rather than talent, in this overcrowded market.
In figures for 2012 Q2, Taobao Juhuasuan (run by Alibaba, which is is Tencent’s e-commerce nemesis) is the top deals site in China with 21.5 percent market share, and Meituan is a steady second place.
同業界の2012年第2四半期の業績をみると、Taobao Juhuasuan(Alibaba運営で、Tencentのeコマースの強敵)が中国の日替わりクーポンサイトのトップで21.5%のマーケットシェアを占めている。Meituanは変わらず安定しており第2位となっている。