• All Things D, Monday, January 17, 2011 1:34 PM

Consistent with its global expansion efforts, Groupon is reportedy in partnership talks with Chinese Internet giant Tencent. Sources tell BoomTown than any deal is likely to involve some sort of co-branded joint venture effort between the two companies. BoomTown's Kara Swisher says the partnership would be "a key strategic move for Groupon, given the hard-to-penetrate-if-you're-not-Chinese Chinese market." To date, has relied largely on acquisitions to expand its footprint.

That's been the case with the recent launches of Groupon Hong Kong, Groupon Singapore, Groupon Philippines, and Groupon Taiwan following the acquisitions of daily deal sites uBuyiBuy, Beeconomic and Atlaspost. "Moving into the lucrative international arena ... is one of the big strategic reasons for Groupon's recent $1 billion funding and also last week's very noisy IPO toe-dipping," according to Swisher. What's more, "Much of Groupon's growth recently has been outside the U.S., and the company's strategic future lies internationally." Still, the is remains to be seen whether Groupon can succeed in China, where other tech giants from Google to Facebook have so far stumbled.

Read the whole story at All Things D »