Groupon Expanding Into China

Despite some verbal backlash as a result of the company's Super Bowl ads, Groupon said it plans to expand its Chinese staff to 1,000 within three months, and enter China "very soon." The company had three ads during the pre-game and the game, showing Groupon deals in the context of tragedies around the world, including the travesty between Tibet and China. As we've mentioned before, CEO Andrew Mason has a quirky sense of humor, and he later apologized for the ads, saying they were meant in jest and were not harmful at all. "We take the causes we highlighted extremely seriously." Andrew Mason, Groupon CEO, said. "The last thing we wanted was to offend our customers." We ultimately don't think the problems Groupon had earlier in the week will delay a IPO or materially affect the company in China in the long run, but competition will be fierce in China. The country has thousands of local coupon providers, and Groupon will just be another fish in the sea.