ClickZ.asia

Hong Kong– As rumors swirl about a possible Google buyout, Groupon has acquired four local deal sites to strengthen its presence in Asia. The new outposts become part of its global network of roughly 33 million subscribers in 35 countries.

With these acquisitions, Groupon launches in Hong Kong, Singapore, Philippines, and Taiwan via uBuyiBuy, Beeconomic, and Atlaspost. Terms of the deals were not disclosed.

In August this year, Groupon acquired Qpod in Japan.

Rob Solomon, president and chief operating officer for Groupon, said expansion into the region is an important next step, allowing Groupon to tap an Internet-savvy customer base to generate increased sales for local merchants.

He added that in Taiwan, group buying is part of the culture, so it’s a concept many consumers are already familiar with.

Taiwan’s Atlaspost started as a map-based social network that enables users to build their profiles through blogging and photo tagging on Google Maps. In August 2010, the location-based social networking site evolved into a group buying platform that offers daily deal services to more than 1.2 million users in the city.

All three sites will adopt the Groupon brand name and design elements in the coming months.

Although collective shopping sites like Groupon have taken off in North America, some argue the model originated in China as Tuángòu,  loosely translated as ‘group buying’.