Mochou Lee
Two of the largest group buying platforms in China, startup “unicorns” Meituan and Dianping, claimed on Thursday to have merged, creating a new giant estimated to be worth USD 17 billion. This merger is said to likely change the group buying market, reshaping its landscape.
A similar giant merger includes China’s craigslist-like 58.com buying its rival Ganji.com in April. After the merger, the new company was said to be valued at USD 10 billion.
The BAT companies of China, Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent are playing an important role in the online-to-offline market through investing and acquiring other companies.
Alibaba invested USD 500 million for a 50% share of koubei.com, a website providing sales and customer service guides, and USD 50 million in Meituan. Baidu in 2014 acquired Nuomi.com, a Meituan-like website from Renren, a social network site. Tencent invested USD 736 million to acquire 25% of 58.com and USD 400 million for a 20% share of Dianping.com.
(Top photo by NinaYu from Baidu Image)
Edited by Rohan Malhotra
Mochou Lee is a guest writer at AllChinaTech