In 2011, the domestic social commerce market is expected to grow six times bigger than the previous year. As Groupon is launching in South Korea, full scale warfares in the social commerce market are inevitable.
There were many rumors about Groupon in South Korea, but they were pretty much all wrong. Groupon was trying to acquire some local companies but they were not satisfactory. Groupon was surprised, however, that a change that took 2 years in the US, was progressed in Korea in only a couple of months. Social commerce has already become a red ocean here, so Groupon has also prepared more careful strategies and more cash.
Korea is not a tiny market at all as China and Japan in Asia, and it can be the core when then expand to other Asian countries which are affected by the Korean Cultural Wave. Instead of M&A, Groupon plans to make its debut in Korea directly, and will use this experience for the future expansion to the other parts of Asia.
Experts foresee that Groupon Korea will reach in the big 3 in a short time. They say that Groupon has a chance of success if Groupon uses a marketing strategy which values 'customer satisfaction'. Groupon America guarantees full refund when a customer wants it.
FYI, the number of current Groupon members is about 50 million and its corporate value is USD 7.8 billion.