Chinese e-commerce group Alibaba announced that it has launched the overseas version of its group buying website Juhuasuan for Hong Kong and Taiwan markets, representing an important step into Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan.
The overseas version of Juhuasuan is reportedly a combination of Alibaba's C2C retail platform Taobao.com and its group buying website Ju.taobao.com. Like the original version, the overseas version also provides selected products and services of providers from Taobao.com.
The overseas version Juhuasuan offers 12 to 20 group buying products each day. In the next few weeks, the website will add new localized lifestyle and tourism services for Hong Kong users.
Daphne Lee, general manager for the overseas business unit of Taobao.com, told local media that the development of this new website will depend on the existing two million registered Hong Kong and Taiwanese users of Taobao.com and Tmall.com. Statistics provided by Alibaba Group showed that by the end of 2012, Taobao.com had 1.4 million registered users in Hong Kong and 600,000 registered users in Taiwan.
Founded in March 2010, Juhuasuan was formerly a sub-website under Taobao.com. In October 2011, it was separated from Taobao.com and became an independent subsidiary of Alibaba Group.