Lashou.com could become China's first daily deals site to launch an IPO in the United States, pitting it against major challenger Groupon, according to a report by Bloomberg.
But the news could be all bluster and roadshow theatrics. The China-based site is also looking to replace Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley as the IPO-backing banks, the report said. Groupon recently pushed back its impending public market launch due to swings in the market.
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July revenue figures for Lashou stood at $21 million, according to Chinese-language daily deals aggregator tuan800. The company was founded in March 2010.
Groupon has also suffered setbacks recently due to a leaked internal memo that has gained the attention of the SEC. Groupon is actually a local challenger to Lashou by way of its tie-in with Gaopeng, backed by Jack Ma-run Alibaba.com, a successful eBay for the China market.
According to Bloomberg, Lashou raised $110 million from investors, including Beijing-based GSR Ventures in a funding round last April that valued the company at about $1.1 billion. In December 2010, it raised $50 million at a valuation of around $500 million.
Alibaba is also cutting into the China search market. At a recent Web conference in Beijing, Ma announced that his company's main preoccupation was to "cause sleepless nights" to native search giant Baidu.
Alibaba, China's biggest e-commerce company, started its eTao search engine last year, as it attempted to increase its revenue potential. Baidu already faces stiff competition from Google.cn, which unexpectedly had its license for running search in China renewed last week. Baidu accounts for over 80% of Chinese language search traffic in the country.
Lashou.com image from Dailydeal.com
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