Dealised Doubles Down on Asia, But Where Does China Fit in?

Group-buy service provider Dealised has announced that it has sold off its European operations to Group Commerce Inc, and also has struck an agreement with advertising company Granton Asia, a regional arm of The Granton Group.

The latter will mean that Granton will implement Dealised e-commerce platform in creating daily deal sites around the Asia region, specifically in countries like the Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Hong Kong.

Readers may recall that Dealised acquired Lokaly, a Hong Kong-based group-buy solution provider, a few months back. At the time, CEO Jonathan Marchbank noted that Dealised’s Hong Kong team would “help it grow right across Asia.”

China looked like an interesting market, and we wondered if that might be part of the company’s long-term Asia plan. Given how the group-buy market has fizzled in the country, we inquired about where China factors into the Dealised vision. The company’s general manager, Jay Ng, tells us:

We’re interested in any market that offers good partnerships with publishers, retailers, and media companies, and where the consumer is ready for group-buying… In North Asia, Hong Kong and Taiwan look good. In SEA, Thailand, Indonesia and The Philippines are very interesting. China is promising, but is in the middle of a huge, much needed, consolidation with the consumer sites. There is a crisis of confidence in the group buying model on the part of both consumers and merchants.

Such caution is probably wise considering the state of group-buying in China right now. Ng adds that the company intends to explore opportunities all over Asia, and they’re confident they can find the right partners at the right time.