Groupon market shows its new face
Groupon market shows its new face
The Groupon market has been re-mapped after a lot of happenings in the last year which witnessed the shutdown of a series of websites and the big personnel changes.
One year ago, the domestic e-commerce community was stirred up by the news that Tom Tran, the founder and managing director of nhomMua.com, the then leading Groupon website, unexpectedly resigned from the post.
By that time when Tom Tran left nhomMua, the Groupon website had been leading the market with 35 percent of the market share, followed by HotDeal.vn with 26 percent. Meanwhile, MuaChung.vn and CungMua.com had 14 percent and 13 percent of the market share, respectively.
However, one year after the happening with nhomMua.com, HotDeal.vn has become the leader in the Groupon market.
CungMua.com and nhomMua.com late last week made a merger deal to create a new power strong enough to compete with HotDeal.vn. Ho Quang Khanh, Managing Director of CungMua.com, would manage the new company.
Will the cooperation help them regain the lost market share? It is obvious that they would have to struggle hard to claim back the market share, because HotDeal.vn has expanded very strongly over the last year and become a redoubtable rival.
HotDeal.vn is the Groupon website belonging to MekongCom, a company that runs two other e-commerce systems – VinaBook.com, an online book distribution network, and YesGo.vn, an online tour booking service.
MekongCom’s CEO Nguyen Thanh Van An said though HotDeal.vn is ”younger” than VinaBook.com, it has been more successful, bringing 90 percent of the total turnover to the company.
VinaBook.com was put into operation in 2004, a very unfamiliar model at that time. “Online book trade cannot bring high profits. However, it has laid a good foundation for us to run other e-commerce models later,” An said.
Only in 2010, when Groupon websites mushroomed in Vietnam, did HotDeal.vn make debut. Though HotDeal.vn was not the pioneer in the market, it quickly jumped to the second position in the market amid the stiff competition with other rivals. And after the happening with nhomMua.com, the Groupon model by MekongCom has outstripped the strongest rival after breaking even in 2012.
According to MekongCom, by the end of November 2013, big changes in the power balance had become clear by the end of November 2013.
Of the 5 million orders served so far this year by HotDeal.vn, CungMua.com, nhomMua.com and MuaChung.vn, 50 percent came to HotDeal.vn.
The representative of MekongCom said the demand for fashion products on HotDeal.vn is so big that MekongCom is considering setting up a new website for the products specifically.
Analysts noted that the remaining market share is divided fairly to the other three - nhomMua.com, CungMua.com and MuaChung.vn
MuaChung.vn is believed to be an equal rival with nhomMua.com with big advantages. Descended from VCCorp, MuaChung.vn is now using a more convenient electronic payment system than other rivals, through the SohaPay payment portal of the holding company. Especially, MuaChung.vn can save marketing expenses, because it can use the online ad tools on the e-websites and online newspapers run by VCCorp.
In the latest news, the former Managing Director of nhomMua.com Tom tran has come back with a new product – Kay.vn – which made debut in mid 2013.
vietnamnet
