Gaopeng cuts a 'turning point' for group buying

SHANGHAI / BEIJING - The group-buying business in China has reached a turning point and massive reshuffles are due after the Chinese joint venture of Groupon Inc started to lay off people, industry sources said.

Gaopeng.com, the joint venture between Groupon and Tencent Holdings Ltd, China's largest Internet company by sales, started to close offices and reduce its workforce on Aug 18.

But senior executives declined to confirm the reports and stressed the Beijing headquarters was conducting business as usual. Ouyang Yun, chief operating officer of Gaopeng, said at the China Internet Conference in Beijing on Tuesday that the company was "consolidating" branch offices scattered around different cities and experiencing a normal scale of personnel reshuffle.