Group Purchase
团购(túangòu)
Related buzz words:
Inflation

"团", tuan, is a team or group; "购", gou, means purchasing. "团购" refers to a formally or informally organized group purchase. It is a new shopping method in China though it is not new to the rest of the world.

The emergence of group purchases can be attributed to increasing inflation accompanied by stagnant reform of the income distribution system. With limited money, people have to counteract the influence of inflation by buying cheaper goods and services. But most people do not want to lower their living standards. Group purchasing offers them access to high-quality products and services at a relatively low price.

Group purchasing was originally targeted at products sold from large online shopping platforms such as Taobao. But later it spread to other shopping websites and finally more than 2,000 specialized group purchasing websites have been established. Some are professional shopping service providers, others are not. Therefore the quality of their products is greatly different. In fact, there have been rising complaints about products with poor quality sold on group purchasing platforms. Consumers have even found that some service providers manage to gain huge profits by selling products to abundant consumers and then setting obstacles for them to book the targeted services.

The Chinese media has been pleading the government to improve supervision on group purchasing websites, but it is not an easy task.

Related links:

China\'s Little Che Purchase Rural Reform