China's Baidu Launches Its Own Version of Groupon

While Google was making headlines this week for reportedly trying to acquire Groupon, Baidu–its biggest Chinese rival–was busy launching its own version of the group buying site. Youa Tuangou, which means “group buy” in Chinese, went live yesterday on Baidu’s Youa e-commerce platform. Any merchant listed on the company’s Baidu Shenbian consumer review site can create discounted offerings to be promoted on the new service. Groupon, meanwhile, has acquired three Web sites in Asia, but none of them operate in mainland China.