According to Wang Xin, CEO of group buying service Meituan, the company generated record sales in this July of over RMB 100 million (US$ 15.67 million), up 20% month-over-month. Meituan landed a total of RMB 230 million (US$ 36 million) in last year’s sales, while for this year the volume is expected to be over RMB 1.6 billion (US$ 250 million).
Wang is a famous internet figure and serial entrepreneur, he founded Fanfou.com, the first twitter-like service in China and Xiaonei, which was acquired and rebranded as Renren.
Wang said that, the number of group buying sites in China is declining since half a year ago. And he believes that eventually, the No.1 group buying site will take over 70% of all the daily deals market while the second one will grasp 20%, and the rest will have to scramble for the remaining 10%.
According to Hitwise, an internet data research firm, Meituan comes in third in traffic after Lashou and Taobao Juhuasuan(淘宝聚划算). However, Wang claims that Meituan is the largest in terms of local services; for instance, the Chinese Groupon-like service boasts a total of nearly 300 deals per day with over 100,000 orders.
Last month Meituan announced a Series B fund raising of US$ 50 million led by Alibaba, in conjunction with Northern Light Venture Capital, Walden International and Sequoia.