Baidu (BIDU 0.43%) quietly launched a new group buy site (t.baidu.com) offering deals across five categories -- Dining, Beauty, Leisure, Lifestyle, and Hotels and Travel -- but with a different focus than its first daily deals site (still accessible at tuan.baidu.com). Currently, the site only offers deals from less than 10 businesses, and only ones in Beijing. According to web blogs today, Baidu may simply be testing t.baidu.com as a beta release before expanding the website elsewhere across China.
While tuan.baidu.com seems to focus on Hotels and Travel, t.baidu.com seems to focus on Dining, Beauty, and Lifestyle. Currently, none of the deals on t.baidu.com are travel offers.
According to Baidu insiders, the new daily deals site works under the company's Location-Based Services division. Moreover, online payments are handled through online banking systems, as Baidu has yet to develop partnerships with third-party payment platforms, and has not connected its own third-party payment tool, Baifubao, to the service.
