Google Launches Shihui, a Beta Test Group Deal Aggregator in China

There are so many group buying sites in China that consumers, if they want to find great bargains, might very well end up hopping from site to site comparing who has best deals among thousands of offerings.

To solve the problem, Google has just launched Shihui, a group deal aggregator in China, to put everything onto a single site for easy research and shopping. On Google Shihui, featured group-buying sites include Lashou, Meituan, Gaopeng (aka Groupon China), Groupon.cn (aka the clone), and Nuomi. Almost all the giants are on board. The site allows users to search for deals via category, location, price, group buy brands, and the size of the discount, in the top menu bar.

Shihui comes a month after Google announced the acquisition of The Dealmap, a group deal aggregator company based in San Francisco. Although there isn’t any similarity in terms of web layout, I initially thought that the crawling and indexing of group deals are based on The Dealmap’s API. But a Google representative told us over the phone that Google Shihui is built entirely in China and has nothing to do with The Dealmap, for now. Acknowledging that China’s group buying space is pretty crazy right now with over 5000 sites across the country, he explained that aggregators have become a part of the landscape as a consequence. And Shihui is Google’s experimental effort to help consumers sort through what’s out there.

Google has more than its share of troubles in China after losing the search battle to Baidu. But the launch of Shihui somehow tells us that Google China is still trying to stay relevant to Chinese consumers. It’s an uphill battle, in my view though.

Of course, Google isn’t very well-liked by the the notorious Great Firewall of China — with Google+ being its most recent product blocked in the country. It’s unlikely that Google Shihui will get blocked though, since it doesn’t function like a social network that might cause any potential unrest in China.

Google Shihui looks neat but it isn’t without competition. There are several group deal aggregators in China that are already in action, including Rakuten China (a partnership between Baidu and Rakuten), Shanda’s Tuanyouhui, and DaTaoTuan who also loves to produce useful group-buy industry reports in China.

Meanwhile in Japan

Google was busy in neighboring Japan today as well, launching a service that will enable small businesses to develop a presence online. Minna no Business Online (accessible at minbiz.jp) is a very user-friendly service that lets users set up a website very quickly, choosing their domain name and industry-specific design templates. You can read more details about it at the Google Japan blog, and a great summary can be found over on Asiajin.com. Google Japan’s YouTube channel has a very well-produced promo video featuring the service too.

Co-written with Steven Millward and Rick Martin