I confess. I love tuangou (团购 Chinese for “group buying”) and frankly, how could you not? A four-course Cajun dinner with wine for two people only cost 116 RMB, one third of its original price. A movie ticket in a downtown cinema can be purchased for less than half what it would cost to walk up to the ticket window. Once you get a taste of it, you just cannot stop. Or maybe it’s just me. I’ve always loved shopping. And sales. And online stuff. Basically, I am a group buy website’s dream demographic – a professional urban Chinese girl with a decent salary and an eye for bargains.
And apparently I’m not the only one. Within the last year, over a thousand Groupon-style websites have opened in China. They provide deals on everything you need in life (and some of the things you don’t need, but want to buy anyway), from delicious meals in fancy restaurants to imported high-end makeup products, to hotel rooms in nice resorts to cameras and electronic equipment.
For me, surfing the tuangou websites is like opening presents at the Christmas, except it happens every day and you can choose what you want and skip the ones