Sina and Tencent launch Groupon-cloned service

Another Chinese Internet giant, QQ, launched its own version of Groupon, tuan.qq.com, last Friday in its headquarter city of Shenzhen in South China. It is planning to expand to 17 other cities soon, including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Chongqing.

The latest move of Sina and QQ follow the suit of Sohu, which launched ihome.sohu.com at the end of June.

Every day these group buying services feature a deal that becomes valid once a minimum numbers of buyers sign on. The threshold is usually low and most of the time is met or exceeded within one hour or two. Businesses, on the other hand, get a large number of new customers.

It is estimated that nearly 1,000 groupon clones, called "tuan gou" in Mandarin, have been launched in China since the beginning of this year. Most of these sites are run by start-ups.