Chinese Group Buying Websites Merge Under Unified Brand

Chinese group buying website Ftuan.com announced that its physical company has been renamed from Beijing Kala Interactive Technology Company Limited to Beijing Wangluo Tianxia Life Technology Company Limited, and both Ftuan.com and Gaopeng.com will be integrated into the company.

The company will also be known as Groupnet and a new logo will be launched soon.

Ftuan.com revealed that Groupnet will be the main part of its new logo. In the future, the company will focus on the online to offline market, aiming to become a one-stop multi-platform group buying provider.

Ftuan.com previously confirmed on June 26, 2012, that the company had completed its merger with Gaopeng.com, and the two companies had set up a new joint company. Lin Ning, chief executive officer of Ftuan.com, was appointed CEO of the new company. Gaopeng.com’s shareholders such as Tencent, Groupon, and Yunfeng Capital also participated in the new company. According to previous report, after the integration, Ftuan.com and Gaopeng.com will still be operated as two independent brands; however, the two companies will have a unified sales team. Gaopeng.com will mainly be responsible for exploring the high-end market, while Ftuan.com will focus on the white-collar user group.

Since the second half of 2011, Chinese group buying websites continued to merge. In September 2011, Ftuan.com took over the group buying business of Kaixin001.com. On May 11, 2012, Ganji.com and 55tuan.com jointly announced that 55tuan.com would become the operator of Ganji.com’s group buying business.