????當Groupon中國公司最終得以重新上線時，它將面臨來自1,700多家中國本地“團購”站點的競爭。不錯，如果說將Groupon在中國面臨的種種困難一言以敝之的話，那就是中文里已有一個專門的詞語，來描述Groupon的商業模式。

????據知情人士稱，Groupon與中國本地門戶網站騰訊公司成立的合資企業Gaopeng.com本月早些時候上線后僅24小時就被關閉。據推測是因為Groupon本地員工行動過早，于是騰訊“采取緊急措施”，關閉了服務器。該跡象亦表明，這兩家公司雖然是合資關系，但尚未形成其樂融融不分彼此的合作伙伴關系。

????“騰訊關閉網站的舉動，顯示出它欲控制該合資企業。”《南方都市報》撰文指出：“騰訊向Groupon發出了一個小小的警告：‘在中國的地盤上，你得聽我的。’”

????對于Groupon這等尚處成長階段的西方初創公司來說，中國代表著大片有待開發的潛在市場。中國現擁有4.5億互聯網用戶，到2014年，這一數字將繼續擴大，會占到全球互聯網用戶總數的42%。據《華爾街日報》（Wall Street Journal）報道，中國團購搜索引擎Tuan800.com稱，到今年年底，每日交易站點交易額將超過24億美元大關。

????“Groupon的成長壓力很大。”市場研究機構Forrester的分析師蘇查里塔?穆爾普羅指出，他指出亞馬遜（Amazon）和eBay等網站均表示，其營業收入的一半來自美國以外的海外市場。“這些網站在任何國際市場都不必作領跑者，他們只需占有一席之地就夠了。”

Groupon重走亨利?福特之路

????Groupon進入中國市場的首次商業舉措，是去年5月收購CityDeal。這家德國初創公司的管理層對Groupon非常著迷，并且最終被授權負責Groupon中國的籌建工作。該公司最近從Andreesen Horowitz和數字天空科技（Digital Sky Technologies）等風險資本機構融到了9.5億美元的資金。他們會將這筆錢用到Groupon中國，這家新成立的公司下個月即要一下子招募1,000名雇員加盟。據報道，Groupon向求職者報出的薪水高達3萬美元，比中國競爭對手的4倍還多。大幅提薪清晰地表明，它要吸引中國互聯網領域最杰出的人才加盟。但是，構建富有競爭力的員工團隊并非如此輕而易舉。

????事實上，中國本土媒體報道稱，Groupon在中國迅速擴張的做法，已被證明不大行得通。Groupon中國區市場總監任鑫（Ren Xin）最近辭職離開了公司，如果說該網站發布鬧劇能說明什么問題的話，那就是該公司與騰訊剛剛建立的合作關系已經開始變味了。盡管Groupon顯然希望網站迅速上線并擴大規模，但騰訊看起來更喜歡緩慢地推進策略。

????如果Groupon希望在中國市場取得成功，它必須像在美國一樣，建立強大的銷售團隊。顯而易見，Groupon希望實現這一目標，至少通過招募1,000名員工，在某種程度上實現此目標。但是，如果最近發布的大學招聘啟示是真的，那說明該公司可能過于看重學校文憑和咨詢經驗，而對本地市場知識則重視不夠。

????“如果你擁有國際著名大學的碩士學位，曾在知名銀行或咨詢機構工作過，擁有初創公司工作經歷，那你就能加入管理團隊，否則的話，我們也能為你找到一個恰當的職位。”招聘啟示中如此寫道。

????擁有一支強大的銷售團隊是成功的根本保障，無論是深圳暫露頭角的餐廳還是武漢超酷的新型酒吧，皆是如此。但是，Groupon中國公司的許多高級經理都是外國人或者出生于其他國家的中國僑民，因而很可能缺乏對本地市場的了解。而對本地市場了若指掌，恰恰是Groupon在世界其他地區的魅力所在。

????Groupon另外一大擔憂是確保那些與其合作的中國本土公司是合法的。盡管中國政府推行非常嚴格的互聯網內容審查制度，但對商業做法的監管卻力度不夠。中國沒有與美國商業改進局（Better Business Bureau）等大型高效的組織近似的機構。商業改進局收集公司的交易信息，并報告欺詐活動。在中國，許多小型企業不同程度上都是非法運營。此問題于最近發展到無以復加的地步：約2,000家小企業在近100名阿里巴巴員工的幫助下，對該公司的客戶進行欺詐，這一丑聞最終導致公司首席執行官衛哲和首席運營官李旭輝引咎辭職。

????當Groupon建起強大的銷售團隊，員工與中國當地企業建立合作關系，好戲才剛剛開場。那時Groupon才真正與團購網站開始短兵相接的戰斗。Groupon即將面臨為數眾多的競爭對手，其中包括由紅杉資本公司（Sequoia Capital）支持的美團。拋開此不說，許多競爭對手都信誓旦旦，要讓Groupon在中國寸步難行。據中國媒體報道，1月中旬，拉手網（Lashou.com）、滿座網（Manzuo.com）、F團（Ftuan.com）等幾家本地團購網站的負責人召開緊急會議，成立防御同盟，宣稱Groupon為其最大競爭對手，原因在于它不但擁有龐大的現金庫，而且與騰訊的合作關系更是令之如虎添翼。他們還想方設法地瓦解Groupon為新員工提供的高薪政策，在他們此次達成的協議中，最嚴厲的一條就是永不雇傭前Groupon員工。

????此外，還有其他一些實際問題需要考慮，比如難以計數的中國公民會產生無數網名，如何在此情況下建立有效的用戶電子郵件數據庫；或者在中國人仍然主要使用現金的情況下，部署在線支付系統。正是看到了Groupon前進道路上的這些困難，谷歌中國聯合創始人郭去疾才會在Twitter上表示，他從Groupon身上看到的是西方人目空一切的態度，并且預測說Groupon中國最終會辦不下去。

????如果Groupon果真在中國辦不成功，它肯定也不是第一家遭此不幸的公司。eBay、雅虎以及谷歌等一大批西方公司紛紛艱難地撤離炙手可熱的中國互聯網市場，景象可謂壯觀；在那一長串名字中，Groupon頂多不過是最新的一個罷了。

????譯者：大海

????When Groupon China finally, officially, goes live, again, it will have some 1,700 local "tuangou" sites to compete with. Yes, if anything sums up the hurdles Groupon is facing in China, it's that the language of the country it's trying to take by storm already has a single, specific word to describe its business model.

????According to Chinese sources, Gaopeng.com, Groupon's local venture with Internet portal Tencent, went live for just 24 hours earlier this month before getting pulled down. Groupon's local staff supposedly jumped the gun, and Tencent "took emergency actions" to shut down the servers, a possible sign that two companies may be in a joint venture, but aren't exactly warm and fuzzy partners just yet.

????"Shutting down the web site shows the desire by Tencent to control this venture," wrote the Southern Metropolis, a local Chinese newspaper. "Tencent is sending Groupon a little warning: 'on Chinese turf, you listen to me.'"

????For budding Western startups like Groupon, China represents a lot of untapped potential. The country holds 450 million Internet users, a number that will grow to become 42% of all global Internet users by 2014. And according to the Wall Street Journal, the Chinese group-buying search engine Tuan800.com claims such daily deal site transactions will pass $2.4 billion in sales by the end of the year.

????"Groupon has a lot of pressure to grow," says Forrester analyst Sucharita Mulpuro, who points to sites like Amazon (AMZN) and eBay (EBAY), which each report that half their revenues come from outside the U.S. "They don't need to be the top player in any international market. They just need to have a presence."

Groupon as Henry Ford

????Groupon's first business move into China started with the acquisition of CityDeal last May. The German startup's management was absorbed into Groupon and eventually put in charge of its China initiative, which involves using funds from the company's recent $950 million investment, from Venture Capital firms including Andreesen Horowitz and Digital Sky Technologies (DST), towards hiring up to 1,000 employees by next month. Groupon reportedly offered to pay job candidates as much as $30,000, more than quadruple what its Chinese competitors are paying. The huge wage increase is clearly meant to attract China's brightest to the company, but building a competent staff won't be quite that easy.

????In fact, local media outlets have reported that the company's rapid expansion is proving somewhat problematic. (And here it's worth noting that all media in China is state controlled, and likely has interests besides objective reporting of the news to consider.) Groupon's marketing director for the China region, Ren Xin, resigned recently and if the site launch brouhaha is any indication, the company's newly-minted relationship with Tencent could already be souring. Whereas Groupon apparently wants to launch and expand quickly, Tencent seems to prefer a much slower approach.

????If Groupon wants to succeed on the Chinese front, it must build a formidable sales-force, like the one it has developed in the U.S. Clearly it intends to meet that goal, at least partly, by hiring those 1,000 employees, but if a recently-posted university jobs posting is legitimate, the company may be placing too much emphasis on academic credentials and consulting experience and not enough placed on knowledge of the local terrain.

????"If you hold a Masters degree from an internationally leading university, have working experience from a reputable bank/consultancy, have startup experience, you will be able to join the management team, otherwise we will also find a suitable position for you," reads the post.

????Having a strong salesforce, one that's in-the-know when it comes to that up-and-coming restaurant in Shēnzhèn or the cool new lounge in Wǔhàn, is essential, but many of the company's senior managers appear to be foreigners or ethnic Chinese who were born in other countries, thus perhaps lacking that ground-level knowledge that is part of Groupon's magic elsewhere in the world.

????Another big concern for Groupon will be ensureing that local companies are legitimate. While content censorship is strictly enforced in China, business practices aren't. Big, effective organizations like the Better Business Bureau, which gather information on a company's transactions and report fraudulent activity, do not have Chinese equivalents, says analyst Mulpuro. Many smaller businesses operate illegally in some way, an issue that most recently came to a head when Alibaba.com CEO David Wei and COO Elvis Lee resigned over controversy that some 2,000 small-business vendors had defrauded Alibaba's customers, with the help of around 100 Alibaba employees.

????Once Groupon has a sales-force in place and its staffers develop relationships with local businesses, the party will just be getting started. Groupon will then be running up against that tuangou competition. Sheer quantity of competition aside -- including Meituan, reportedly backed by Sequoia Capital – a number of competitors have vowed to make Groupon's Chinese expansion as difficult as possible. In mid-January, according to Chinese media reports, the heads of several local sites including Lashou.com, Manzuo.com, and Ftuan.com held an emergency meeting and formed a defensive alliance, declaring Groupon as their biggest rival due to its huge cash reserves and Tencent partnership. One of the harshest stipulations they agreed upon was to never hire a former Groupon employee, in an attempt to negate the high salaries Groupon is offering new hires.

????There are other practical issues to consider, like how to build an effective email database of users when so many Chinese citizens use numerous aliases, or deploy an online payment system for a country that still pays predominantly with cash. It's obstacles like these that may have led Google China co-founder Alan Guo to Twitter about what he saw as Groupon's arrogant Western attitude, and predict that the venture would likely fail.

????If Groupon did fail in China, it certainly wouldn't be the first company to do so. Groupon would just be the latest in a long line of Western companies -- like eBay, Yahoo and Google -- to make a spectacular, troubled exit from the white-hot Chinese Internet scene.