Groupon in talks to partner with Chinese internet major Tencent Holdings

US group buying company, Groupon is in talks with Chinese internet major Tencent Holdings Ltd. for a partnership, Terms of the deal weren’t clear, but it was likely to involve some sort of co-branded joint venture. Tencent is the dominant social network in China, thanks to its instant messaging platform QQ, which it monetizes with virtual goods like avatars. Both companies are confident the JV will lead in the industry by May this year.

The information was apparently leaked by a German Groupon employee during the course of interviewing a job applicant. The employee said that his China-located company was a joint venture between Groupon and the Shenzhen-based internet company Tencent in which both companies held a 50% stake. He was also reported to have said that the progress in China will be extremely rapid and that the new site could launch within the next two weeks, with the goal of becoming China’s top group-buying website by May.

The new partnership will benefit both parties and Groupon will be able to take advantage of Tencent’s large customer base and sales channels.

No further details on the new company’s business strategy were revealed. However, industry experts suggest the two parties should form the new website into an integrator to all others existent in the field, so that their services are also made available on the two parties’ platfor