Will We See A Groupon China?

Groupon had their first television experience with its Super Bowl ads over the weekend, that drew plenty of criticism and ire, especially the Tibet ad. Benzinga wrote about it yesterday, and personal opinion aside, the ad has drawn massive criticism in China, and could lead to the end of Groupon China before it ever gets going. Groupon had been hoping to launch its coupon service in China in partnership with the massively popular Chinese company Tencent, but that doesn't look likely, at least for now anyway. Unlike the U.S., China has thousands of local coupon businesses, compared to the U.S., which basically is dominated by Groupon and LivingSocial, and a few others. Groupon's commercial threatens to delay or terminate the launch of Groupon in China. It's even got Groupon CEO Andrew Mason responding to the critics. "We take the causes we highlighted extremely seriously." Andrew Mason, Groupon CEO, said. "The last thing we wanted was to offend our customers." I don't know how the Chinese government will ultimately react to Groupon's commercial, but I do know the Chinese culture is one strongly built on respect and tradition, and Groupon's ad clearly upset the Chinese population. Ultimately I don't think this will affect the company after cooler heads prevail, and the company will eventually IPO. What do you think? Do you think this will affect Groupon's IPO? Will we see Groupon in China?