Meituan, China’s leading group deals site, raises $700M

Meituan, a group deals site sometimes described as “the Groupon of China,” has raised $700 million at a $7 billion valuation. The company announced the funding on its Weibo page and during a press conference in Beijing on Sunday, but did not disclose its investors.

有时被人形容为“中国版 Groupon”的美团完成了7亿美元的融资，估值为70亿美元。该公司在微博主页宣布了这一融资消息，并于周日在北京召开了新闻发布会，不过本轮融资的投资方并未得到披露。

Meituan’s last funding round was a mere eight months ago, when it raised a $300 million Series C from Alibaba, Sequoia, and General Atlantic. The company first raised $20 million from Sequoia soon after it launched in 2010, and then an additional $50 million from Alibaba and Sequoia in July 2011.

美团上一轮融资大约是在8个月前，当时该公司完成了3亿美元的C轮融资，投资方包括阿里巴巴、红杉资本以及泛大西洋投资集团。该公司在2010年成立后不久就从红杉资本那里拿到了1200万美元的首笔投资，之后于2011年7月又从阿里巴巴和红杉资本那里拿到了5000万美元投资。

Meituan is one of China’s earliest group buying sites. The country saw a glut of similar businesses open soon after, but many shut down as competition increased.

美团是中国最早成立的团购网站之一。很快成百上千个类似的团购网站在中国遍地开花，然而随着竞争的加剧，许多网站都倒闭了。

Meituan was one of the few that managed to survive and continue to score VC funding. It is currently China’s largest group buying site by gross merchandise volume, with 20 million daily mobile users in more than 1,000 cities. While Meituan originally focused on group discounts, like Groupon, it now also functions as a marketplace for services from local vendors, including hotels, restaurants, and entertainment venues.

美团是存活下来并不断获得风险投资的少数团购网站之一。目前它是中国成交总额最高的团购网站，在超过1000个城市中拥有2000万的日活跃移动用户。尽管美团最开始像Groupon一样专注于团购折扣，现在它也作为一个本地服务市场，为酒店、饭店和娱乐场所等供应商提供交易平台。

In the third quarter of 2014, China’s group buying market was worth 22.96 billion RMB (about $3.74 billion), an increase of 43.6 percent from the previous quarter, according to Chinese research firm EnfoDesk. Meituan’s closest competitor is restaurant listings web site Dianping.com, which is backed by Alibaba rival Tencent. Other players include Nuomi and 55tuan.

中国研究公司易观智库数据显示，2014 年第3季度，中国团购市场交易规模达229.6亿元（约 37.4 亿美元），环比增长 43.6%。最接近美团的竞争对手是饭店清单网站大众点评网，由阿里巴巴的对手腾讯投资。其它的网站还有糯米团和窝窝团 。

Meituan first broke even in 2013 and expected to double its revenue in 2014 from 16 billion yuan to 40 billion yuan (about $6.4 billion) last year. CEO Wang Xing has said that Meituan is considering a U.S. initial public offering, but will wait until at least 2017 to list.

美团早在2013年就实现了盈利，预计2014年收入将翻倍，从160亿元增长至400亿美元（约64亿美元）。首席执行官王兴表示，美团正在考虑在美国上市，不过至少会等到2017年。