Half of group buying websites have been "closed"

China Electronic Commerce Research Center recently released the "2012 China online buy group market data monitoring report" shows that as of the end of 2012, the country has accumulated 6,177 group purchase sites, of which 56% of the group purchase site has been "closed." The report reminds that the feedback rate of customer complaints from group buying websites is still low, and the quality of service needs to be improved.

The China Electronic Commerce Research Center is a third-party e-commerce research organization headquartered in Hangzhou. The latest report released shows that during the whole year of 2012, China's online group purchase market reached 34.8 billion yuan, an increase of 61% over the same period last year. Throughout the year, the number of participants in the group buying market showed a “N”-shaped trend. With the gradual consolidation of the industry trend and the rapid spread of mobile Internet, the number of participants in the fourth quarter began to rebound.

The report also analyzed the group purchase users and said that nearly 50% of group purchase users were white-collar workers in enterprises and institutions. The proportion of group purchase users aged 25 to 29 was 45%; all users accounted for relatively high levels of undergraduate education, reaching 40%.

Another trend is the substantial increase in the proportion of mobile Internet subscriptions. The report shows that in 2012, life services purchases from mobile Internet services surged 27 times year-on-year, and mobile services accounted for more than 15% of total transactions in online group purchases.

This report also reminds that, compared with the previous situation of group purchase complaints, the enterprises that were complained in 2012 were relatively concentrated, indicating that the industry reshuffle has eliminated a large number of enterprises, but the total amount of online group purchase complaints remained high throughout the year.