Everyone in Japan’s startup scene has been guessing which of the about 20 local clones Chicago-based Groupon would buy for about 3 months now. And today it came to light that the Americans have chosen to go for Qpod, which offered its first daily deal on May 28.
And they are not losing time with the rebranding of the service either. As you can see above, the site already received a new logo.
According to The Nikkei (Japan’s biggest business newspaper), Groupon will acquire a majority stake in the Tokyo-based startup for $10 million. Qpod is reportedly ready to issue shares to Groupon via a private placement by the end of this week.
Qpod currently has around 60 employees and around 20 competitors on the Japanese market. The company has been set up by direct sales company PakuReserve and VC firm Infinity Venture Partners.
My personal guess is that in Asia, Groupon will buy TicketMonster, a Korean clone that currently generates $93,000 daily, next. In China, Groupon has hundreds of clones.
Serkan Toto
Hi,
why not start own groupon clone for just $89, i tried http://wroupon.com .made $200 already 🙂
Rita corner
Every one can start this type of business in 24hours, please check this http://bestgrouponclone.com/
thank
Thanks. Does that package support Japanese? And PayPal is not a common payment option for Japanese market.