Online Group Buying Taking Off in China

China is seeing an explosion of Groupon-like websites as more companies and entrepreneurs hope to get in on the group buying trend.
China, which has 420 million Internet users, saw the launch of its first group buying site in January of this year. Now the country has 1,215, according to the China e-Business Research Center.
Group buying is a kind of shopping approach that became popular on the Internet with the emergence of U.S.-based sites like Groupon, which was launched in 2008. The sites work by offering special discounted deals on a product or service from a featured company. If enough users buy into the discount, then the special deal is given to all those who participated. The formula has been a hit with users in the U.S., with Groupon so far having sold more than 17 million discounted deals. Although its popularity online only started this year, the concept of group buying already had roots in China, where customers often haggle with merchants to get a better deal. The shopping approach later moved on to the web in the forms of specialized sites or forums to barter with businesses.