Groupon set for Chinese challenge

飞雪寒冰

Groupon’s Chinese site went live on Monday and will start offering daily deals this month, the online coupon company said, marking its long-awaited entry to the world’s most populous internet market.
在线团购公司Groupon表示，其中国网站“高朋网”(Gaopeng.com)已于周一上线，将从本月开始提供日常交易。这标志着该公司进入了期待已久、人口最多的中国互联网市场。

The start of GaoPeng.com has triggered curiosity among some Chinese industry incumbents and fear among others as Groupon is entering an already fiercely competitive market.
Groupon进入的是一个竞争本已十分激烈的市场。“高朋网”的上线，引起了中国一些现有团购网站的好奇，同时让另一些团购网站感到担忧。

飞雪寒冰

By the end of 2010, the number of groups buying websites in China had ballooned to 2,612 and total industry revenues were Rmb2.5bn ($380m), according to tuanlab, a web portal that links to online coupon sites.
根据提供在线团购网站链接的门户网站——团实验室(tuanlab)的数据，到2010年年底，中国团购网站数量已飙升至2612家，行业总收入达到25亿元人民币（合3.8亿美元）。

“You have to ask how they think they can carve out a niche and distinguish themselves,” said George Song, chief executive of Didatuan, China’s third-largest coupon website according to tuan800, another aggregator portal.
嘀嗒团(Didatuan)首席执行官宋中杰(George Song)表示：“你不得不问一句，他们认为如何才能争得一席之地，并脱颖而出。”根据另一个资讯门户网站团800(tuan800)的资料，嘀嗒团是中国第三大团购网站。

飞雪寒冰

In China, the online group-buying boom started in early 2010. “We all got excited when we saw what Groupon was doing,” said Mr Song, former head of sales at Google China, referring to the website’s success in the US. He and a team of colleagues quit their jobs and started Dida-tuan in June last year. They are a rarity for this segment in China, with their years of experience in online marketing and advertising.
中国在线团购繁荣始于2010年初。谷歌中国(Google China)前销售总监宋中杰表示：“当我们看到Groupon所做的事情，都十分兴奋。”他指得是Groupon在美国获得的成功。宋中杰和一些同事辞职后，于去年6月创办了嘀嗒团网站。他们拥有多年的在线营销和广告经验，这在中国团购行业内是十分罕见的。

Industry executives said Groupon was in for some drastic adjustment in such a market environment. In its home market, Groupon sells deeply discounted coupons for goods and services, keeping half the cost of each coupon sold.
业内高管表示，在这种市场环境下，Groupon一定会进行一些重大调整。在其本土市场，Groupon销售高折扣的商品和服务，自己留存售价的一半。

飞雪寒冰

“They will have to say goodbye to the 50 per cent margins they are used to in the US – here, margins at the strong companies are maybe about 10 per cent, and for many smaller firms they are in the single digits,” said Ding Yongxin, head of the group-buying site of Sohu, China’s second-largest online news portal. Mr Ding said Sohu did not need the group-buying operation to make money, but saw it as a tool to attract and retain more young, consumption-ready users to its portal and complement its other offerings.
中国第二大在线新闻门户网站搜狐(Sohu)团购网负责人丁永兴表示：“他们将不得不告别在美国的50%的毛利——在中国，大公司的毛利可能为10%左右，而许多小公司则是个位数。”丁永兴表示，搜狐不需要团购业务赚钱，而是把它作为一种工具吸引更多乐于消费的年轻用户访问并停留在其门户网站，以便他们使用搜狐提供的其它服务。

While Mr Ding said he wished Groupon luck, others were not so sanguine.
尽管丁永兴表示，自己祝Groupon好运，但其他人并非那么乐观。

飞雪寒冰

Several Chinese coupon sites are eyeing investors for new rounds of fundraising and eventual IPOs, and are jittery that a strong new rival in the market could spoil those plans.
数家中国团购网站正寻求投资者提供新一轮的融资，并最终实现首次公开发行(IPO)。它们担心市场中出现新的强劲竞争对手，可能会破坏上述计划。

Lashou, China’s largest group-buying site with a turnover of Rmb68.9m in December according to tuan800, is embarking on an expansion into China’s smaller cities, because Groupon is hiring in Beijing and Shanghai, the two cities where it plans to start offering its daily deals.
由于Groupon正在北京和上海招兵买马，计划在这两座大城市开始开展日常业务，拉手网(Lashou)遍准备进军中国的较小城市。根据团800的数据，拉手网是中国最大的团购网站，去年12月实现收入6890万元人民币。

飞雪寒冰

Observers also said Groupon should look to the failures of other western internet companies in China as a lesson. “No western internet firm has really succeeded here, many of them have just tried to impose strategies they use elsewhere,” Mr Ding said.
观察人士也表示，Groupon应该研究其它西方互联网企业在中国失败的教训。丁永兴表示：“没有哪一家西方互联网企业在中国真正获得了成功，许多公司只是试图在中国复制在其它国家使用过的策略。”

Chinese group-buying executives said an often chaotic business environment, with widespread fraud and different consumer habits from those in the US, could be challenging for Groupon. “In the US, people are used to making a reservation in a restaurant, but Chinese rarely ever do that,” Mr Song said.
中国团购网站高管表示，中国较为混乱的商业环境、普遍存在的欺诈以及不同于美国的消费习惯，都可能对Groupon构成挑战。宋中杰表示：“在美国，人们习惯预订餐位，但中国人很少这么做。”

飞雪寒冰

Groupon appears to be heeding that advice, and has teamed up with Tencent, China’s largest internet company, for the China site. A fund run by Tencent is a co-investor and another fund which counts Jack Ma, the founder of Alibaba, China’s largest e-commerce empire, among its investors, also has a stake.
Groupon似乎注意到了上述建议，它与中国最大的互联网公司腾讯(Tencent)合作运营高朋网。腾讯运营的一只基金成为高朋网的共同投资者，而中国最大的电子商务帝国阿里巴巴(Alibaba)创始人马云(Jack Ma)及其它投资者出资的另一只基金也参股了高朋网。

“GaoPeng aims to introduce a sophisticated group-buying business model and an international service standard to the market,” said Yun Ouyang, head of GaoPeng and vice-president at Tencent’s strategy department.
高朋网CEO、腾讯战略发展部副总经理欧阳云表示：“高朋网旨在向市场引入成熟的团购业务模式和国际服务标准。”