Chinese Internet giant Tencent, which is best known for its wildly popular messaging service WeChat (known as Weixin in China), has officially combined its e-commerce operations with online retailer JD.com, after rumors last month hinted at such a move. The two companies have inked a strategic partnership that will see JD tap on Tencent’s significant mobile and Internet user base — WeChat, for example, has 272 million monthly active users– and Tencent will be able to leverage on JD’s e-commerce services. As part of their cooperation, Tencent will support JD in its e-commerce business by offering priority access points in its chat platforms, WeChat and mobile QQ, as well as provide support from other key platforms. Tencent will initially hold a 15 percent stake in JD upon the completion of this deal, which Bloombergpins at $214.7 million, and it will further subscribe at IPO price for an additional 5 percent of JD on a post-IPO basis. JD just filed for a $1.5 billion IPOin January this year. In the meantime, JD will acquire 100 percent interests in Tencent’s e-commerce businesses — including QQ Wanggou and Paipai marketplace, logistics assets and personnel, as well as a minority stake in Tencent’s e-commerce site 51Buy.com(known as Yixun in China). Both companies will also cooperate on online payment services, as they seek to improve the online shopping experience of customers. WeChat in China has already integrated payment options, and the partnership will no doubt give more emphasis to that. Martin Lau, the president of Tencent, says: “Our strategic partnership with JD will not only extend our presence in the fast-growing physical goods e-commerce market, but also allow us to better develop our enabling services such as payment, public accounts and performance-based advertising network to create a more prosperous ecosystem for overall e-commerce activities on our platforms.” Tencent has been thirsty for success in e-commerce as it seeks to tap on its large userbase from its social platforms, especially WeChat, seeking to come up against Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba. A combination of Tencent and JD’s e-commerce businesses will no doubt lead to a stronger push for e-commerce on WeChat. It’s still an early start to the year, but Tencent has already been taking steps to boost its e-commerce presence on WeChat via a $50 million investmentin ‘China’s Yelp’ announced yesterday, as well as a logistics deallast month. Tencent and JD’s partnership can be viewed as waging war on China’s e-commerce stalwart Alibaba — and it will pose a huge threat to the latter, which is already stepping up its mobile social efforts. Alibaba’s CEO Jonathan Lu has pledged to continue the e-commerce giant’s string of big investmentsas it continues focusing on improving its services for mobile – and the company has launched mobile gamesand upped efforts to promote its chat app, woo mobile shopperswith free data and even give away free smartphonesto retailers in China. |
據(jù)美國科技網(wǎng)站The Next Web報道,以風(fēng)靡全中國的社交通訊服務(wù)軟件WeChat(在中國被稱為“微信”)而最為人所知的中國互聯(lián)網(wǎng)巨頭騰訊公司正式將其電子商務(wù)部門并入股京東(JD.com),而在二月,有關(guān)于此的各種傳言滿天飛。 這兩家公司建立了戰(zhàn)略伙伴關(guān)系:一方面,京東將利用騰訊龐大的手機和互聯(lián)網(wǎng)用戶群體,如微信擁有2.72億月活躍用戶);另一方面,騰訊將能夠借力于京東的電子商務(wù)服務(wù)來。作為合作的一部分,騰訊將優(yōu)先向京東提供其聊天平臺(如微信和手機QQ客戶端)提供入口,并從其他的大平臺里提供支持,以助力京東在實物電商領(lǐng)域的發(fā)展。 這次交易完成后,騰訊將先持有京東約15%的股權(quán),而據(jù)彭博社估計,約合2.147億美元。騰訊同時還簽署了京東IPO股價認(rèn)購協(xié)議,將在后者上市時追加認(rèn)購5%的股權(quán)。今年1月,京東在美國提交了上市申請,計劃融資15億美元。 同時,京東將收購騰訊電商旗下的QQ網(wǎng)購和拍拍網(wǎng)的100%權(quán)益、物流人員和資產(chǎn)以及51Buy.com(騰訊電商網(wǎng)站,在中國被稱作“易迅網(wǎng)”)少數(shù)股權(quán)。 雙方還將在在線支付服務(wù)方面進行合作,以提升顧客的網(wǎng)購體驗。在中國,微信支付接口已全面開放,雙方這次的合作無疑將更加注重微信支付的普及。 騰訊總裁劉熾平說道:“我們與京東的戰(zhàn)略合作關(guān)系將不僅擴大我們在快速增長的實物電商領(lǐng)域的影響力,同時能夠更好地發(fā)展我們的各項電子商務(wù)服務(wù)業(yè)務(wù),如支付、公眾賬號和效果廣告平臺,為我們平臺上的所有電商業(yè)務(wù)創(chuàng)造一個更繁榮的生態(tài)系統(tǒng)?!?/p> 一直以來騰訊都渴望在電子商務(wù)領(lǐng)域取得成功,因此它試圖利用其社交平臺的龐大用戶,尤其是微信用戶,來對抗中國電子商務(wù)巨頭阿里巴巴。 騰訊與京東的聯(lián)合毫無疑問將借助微信有力開辟電子商務(wù)新戰(zhàn)場。2014年伊始,騰訊就已經(jīng)采取一系列措施來擴大微信電子商務(wù)領(lǐng)域。先是上個月與多家物流公司達成的合作交易,接著又宣布斥資5000萬美元投資大眾點評網(wǎng)。 騰訊與京東商城的聯(lián)姻可視為對中國電商巨頭阿里巴巴發(fā)起的戰(zhàn)書,而且今后將對阿里巴巴構(gòu)成更大的挑戰(zhàn),阿里巴巴已經(jīng)在加快其移動社交應(yīng)用推廣。阿里巴巴首席執(zhí)行官陸兆禧曾表示,會繼續(xù)進行電子商務(wù)的一系列大型投資,繼續(xù)強化移動端業(yè)務(wù)——阿里巴巴推出了手機游戲,并加大力度提升聊天應(yīng)用軟件,向手機購物者提供免費數(shù)據(jù),甚至向中國的智能手機零售商免費提供。 (譯者 dreamcatcher888 編輯 丹妮) |