Groupon teams up with Tencent

Daily deals website Groupon went live in China on Monday, launching a website, GaoPeng.com, that is funded by Groupon, the Tencent Collaboration Fund (Tencent Holdings; 700.HK) and Yunfeng Capital, Reuters reported. The site has begun accepting email registrations from local consumers, as daily deals promoting local merchants are set to debut in March. Groupon has been reportedly scouting out locations and workers in China, expanding where its rivals have yet to arrive. Over the course of 2010, the internet retail site has grown from about 3 million to 50 million users across 500 cities in 40 countries. Groupon, a two-year-old start-up, recently completed a US$950 million round of financing on its way to considering an IPO, which many expect will be one of the largest technology IPOs of 2011.