groupon with its cloners in china

Groupon's deal-a-day group discount business model has been copied around the world but nowhere more vigorously than in China. Meituan was among the first.

GROUPON (FROM "GROUP COUPON")

Founder: Andrew Mason, 30, born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Employees: 6,000.

Projected coupon sales for 2011: $3 billion to $4 billion.

Revenue share from coupon sales: 30% to 50%.

Recent deal: Bus ride from New York to Washington, D.C. for $10, valued at $20.

MEITUAN (MEANING "BEAUTIFUL GROUP")

Founder: Wang Xing, 32, born in Longyan, Fujian Province.

Employees: 1,400, plus 300 franchised sales agents throughout China.

Projected coupon sales for 2011: $150 million to $230 million.

Revenue share from coupon sales: Less than 10%.

Recent deal: Japanese meal for two in Beijing for $26, valued at $106.

The cooperation between the biggest group purchase website in the US and Chinese Internet giant Tencent is expected to energize competition in the domestic market for group purchases. It plans to increase its staff to 1,000 people within three months. Many of its Chinese peers say their employees have received job offers with better pay from Groupon. Reports say some local websites have even reached an agreement that they would not hire people who have worked for Groupon. While confidence by overseas companies in their China ventures often comes from their well-established brands, ample capital and global management expertise, domestic websites have advantages in offline services, cooperation with online sellers and customer loyalty, as well as their familiarity with the local business environment.

The group-buying marketplace is rife with scandal stories about exaggerated sales or, worse, dissatisfied customers. Big names like Lashou and Meituan take the brunt of the bad publicity, including a national television expose on "consumer day" in March that attacked both. Keeping original operation mode is not a long term strategy. They are looking forward the next transformation because cloning businesses is far too easy in China, but cloning success is no sure thing.

@Shuwen Zhao

I know the economy sucks but c'mon...

Since early 2008 the economy took a turn for the worst, with a major national deficit in the trillions the United States as well as other countries suffered a major blow economically, leading to the loss of jobs in multiple industries.  I understand how many individuals began to spend less money and become more aware of their shopping habits all together, but when it comes to dining out there still should remain some old traditional aspects that pertain to areas of etiquette and manners.  Recently I was asked by my professor if I were to get offended if I was having lunch with a future employer and at the end of the meal used a coupon to pay for our luncheon.  I am not a girl of high maintenance or status value but if I am treated to a lunch, especially a formal one, please do not disrespect our time together by pulling out a buy one get one free coupon.  You are simply showing to me that I am not fully worth your time and effort, and what is going to happen when promotion time comes around, will I be receiving coupons to pay for my cell-phone bill?  The bottom line in my argument towards these undeceive acts is that if my future employer does not want to invest in my well-being, no matter if that is my 401 k plan or my lunch, than what business do I have working my butt of for the company?  Readers, I want you to think about these things when encountering future friends, lovers, and employers.  You know what you have to offer, make sure the other half is carrying their weight as well.



-Anastasia Mantzaris

Super Bowl with Asian Society

Hi,

I’ve been busy this whole week because of school works. I just got a chance to post information about how the Super Bowl attracts Asian people as a task in class. I finally found the interesting forum on one site, which talked about Super Bowl broadcast in Asia. Moreover, this site allows members to share personal opinions about the topic. So, this site should attract you guys.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/asia/780255-super-bowl-broadcast-asia.html

~ Guntapon Suranikom

Student’s video resume has Wall Street howling

http://video.forbes.com/fvn/misc/ab_alexi101206

Advices on video resume, avoiding humiliation:

1 Don’t talk about yourself, have others talk about you

2 Focus on your strengths

3 Video should target job position

This is a story happened around five years ago.

Vayner, an aspiring investment banker, sent a video entitled "Impossible is Nothing" along with an 11-page resume and glamour shot to financial services powerhouse UBS. Within hours scores of investment banks noticed his application, as bankers e-mailed the seven-minute video and turned Vayner into the biggest joke on Wall Street.

As long as there have been job applicants, there have been application gaffes. Today, with e-mail as the preferred mode of corporate communication, that embarrassing camera phone picture or salacious IM to a coworker quickly travels far beyond company walls. So too can a boastful resume or cover letter.

That’s certainly what happened to Vayner. UBS is launching an internal investigation to figure who, if anyone, within the company leaked Vayner’s cover letter, over-the-top resume and video. Regardless of how it ended up in the Internet, Vayner's video has been passed from Bain Consulting, to Barclay's Capital, to Bank of America, even into Congress. The video quickly went viral, traveling from several blogs and onto YouTube, which eventually removed it from its sight, reportedly at Vayner's request.

In his video, Vayner shows off his varied skills: lifting a 495-pound weight, ballroom dancing to Latin musak, serving a tennis ball at 140 miles an hour, and, as a dramatic conclusion, breaking seven bricks with a karate chop. "Ignore the losers, bring your A-game, your determination and your drive to the field and success will follow you," advised the budding management guru in his slight Russian accent. "If you want to dance, dance," he says, before expertly waltzing a scantily clad woman around the room.

Vayner probably won't be hired on Wall Street any time soon, but e-embarrassment doesn't have to be career ending, says hiring experts. "You certainly have a reputation," says Richard Castellini Vice President of Consumer Marketing at CareerBuilder.com, "but still being young, someone might take a chance on you."

Younger employees, often devotees on MySpace and reality TV, are predisposed to online missteps in the workplace, says Castellini. "Voyeurism is an aspect of their lives," he says, "and they don't understand the ramifications of it." Employers often check out potential hires on social networking sites, so consider deleting that picture of you funneling beer or flashing the camera. "What we tend to tell our students about using new technologies," says University of Pennsylvania Career Services Director Patricia Rose, "is beware."

Avoiding embarrassment completely is better than a hundred apologies. So tailor your application to the industry, says Rose. Some fields, like advertising, fashion or entertainment, are more tolerant of creative applications. Vayner's video would be great, if he was applying to write satire for The Onion. But for banks, it's a flop. "The more conventional the industry, the more they want more conservative business practices demonstrated," says Choy. Before you apply, learn about the company and talk to alumni so you understand the industry.

Fortunately for Vayner, e-errors have a built-in delete button. The fall-out, while permanently archived on the Internet, doesn’t last as long with employers. "People have short memories," says Rose, "Wait until the smoke clears, and then you'll realize that people have relatively short attention spans."

@shuwen zhao

Ex-Employees Can Be A Company's Worst Nightmare

The power of social media has grown at an alarming rate over the past few years. It is becoming easier and easier for anyone to spread any information to almost anyone in the world. Many people use the Internet and social media as outlets to express anger as well as thoughts and ideas. When it comes to disgruntled employees however, this can become a serious matter that can possibly hurt a company.

I came across an article about a situation in which a former employee of the restaurant Florindo's posted on Facebook that he had been a chef at the restaurant and had disregarded customers' requests for gluten-free meals. Because of this post, angry customers began posting negative reviews of the restaurant on the internet and it is said that it will most likely cause considerable damage to Florindo's.

Business owners can take action through several review sites by verifying their business with the site and by signing up with Google alerts that will let owners know whenever their company's name comes up on the Internet.

At this point, there is no real way to completely prevent former employees from bashing their employers on their personal social media sites. The real action that can be taken is to stay on top of your company's online reputation so if something comes up, you can be prepared to deal with it and save your company's reputation. Regardless if a claim is true or not, it can hurt your company when it is put out on the Internet.

Source: http://www.postindependent.com/article/20110406/VALLEYNEWS/110409941/1083&ParentProfile=1074

- Lauren Cochrane

Could this be your company on YouTube?

According to reputation damaged advertising on social networks, Facebook is one of the social network services that may get attack from negative viewers. That is not only one site which is risking to get attack. Since I’ve been visiting many sites on the Internet, I realized that another social network which risk to get attack by negative persons or negative companies is YouTube. Persons or companies have negative opinions to another may post videos which create by themselves, and post on the YouTube site in order to parody their enemies. Check out this site http://www.bnet.com/blog/management/shocking-viral-videos-could-this-be-your-company-on-youtube/3864. It provides examples of reputation damaged on advertisements. In my opinion, if I owned a company, and get attack on a website, all opinions from viewers will be an idea for improving my company, and I may deal with them in a good way.

~Guntapon Suranikom

 

Facebook Reputation Damaged Ads

Most people around the world use Facebook as the social network. Facebook is a social network service. Users are able to create their own profile add other users as friends, and exchange messages, including automatic notifications when they update their profile. However, some users post their information as an advertisement on their Facebook pages, so other users may see what he or she have posted. Some users have negative opinions. They may use rude words, and post them on the Facebook page. Some users may get attack from other reasons. For example, the Facebook owner, Mark Zuckerberg, gets legal attack over the authorship of Facebook. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/facebook/8445711/Facebook-Mark-Zuckerbergs-reputation-damaged.html

~ Guntapon Suranikom