Fave, an online-to-offline (O2O) e-commerce firm operating in Southeast Asia, has acquired deals and discounts platform Groupon Singapore.
The move, which follows its acquisitions of Groupon Malaysia and Indonesia in 2016, is part if the company’s efforts to solidify its presence in the region. Fave now connects over 10,000 businesses with six million online subscribers on its platform.
To date, Groupon Malaysia has been fully integrated into Fave, while Groupon Indonesia is set to follow suit in the coming months. Groupon Singapore will see a similar integration into Fave by mid-2017.
The Fave team, who also founded fitness sharing platform KFit, said they are aiming to innovate and drive O2O across multiple lifestyle categories in Southeast Asia.
"With one of the highest smartphone penetration in the world at 85% and a highly competitive market for offline businesses, Fave's ability to connect digitally savvy consumers to offline businesses will play a key role in the company's success in the region," said Ng Aik-Phong, managing director of Fave Singapore.
Fave's mobile-first approach provides a cashless transactional experience to consumers who live online that are looking to discover and enjoy a wide variety of experiences from offline businesses.
Businesses who have partnered with Fave in Singapore includes Naughty Nuri's, Pastamania, Shangri-La, Holiday Inn and much more.
Fave founder Joel Neoh said the company has seen tremendous growth in the adoption of O2O platforms by local businesses across Southeast Asia over the past year, and the benefits the platform offers today is just beginning to emerge.
"We are very excited about the opportunity to combine Groupon Singapore's success with our technology, to further enhance convenience for consumers while creating more growth opportunities for local businesses,” he said in a media statement.
In its latest earnings report, Groupon said its gross billings reached $6.1 billion in 2016, compared with $6.3 billion in 2015, or a 2% year-over-year growth. It also reiterated that it expects to exit 11 countries as part of its streamline and simplify initiative.