腾讯投资京东 意在对抗阿里

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.

据美国科技网站The Next Web报道，以风靡全中国的社交通讯服务软件WeChat（在中国被称为“微信”）而最为人所知的中国互联网巨头腾讯公司正式将其电子商务部门并入股京东（JD.com），而在二月，有关于此的各种传言满天飞。

这两家公司建立了战略伙伴关系：一方面，京东将利用腾讯庞大的手机和互联网用户群体，如微信拥有2.72亿月活跃用户）；另一方面，腾讯将能够借力于京东的电子商务服务来。作为合作的一部分，腾讯将优先向京东提供其聊天平台（如微信和手机QQ客户端）提供入口，并从其他的大平台里提供支持，以助力京东在实物电商领域的发展。

这次交易完成后，腾讯将先持有京东约15%的股权，而据彭博社估计，约合2.147亿美元。腾讯同时还签署了京东IPO股价认购协议，将在后者上市时追加认购５％的股权。今年1月，京东在美国提交了上市申请，计划融资15亿美元。

同时，京东将收购腾讯电商旗下的QQ网购和拍拍网的100%权益、物流人员和资产以及51Buy.com（腾讯电商网站，在中国被称作“易迅网”）少数股权。

双方还将在在线支付服务方面进行合作，以提升顾客的网购体验。在中国，微信支付接口已全面开放，双方这次的合作无疑将更加注重微信支付的普及。

腾讯总裁刘炽平说道：“我们与京东的战略合作关系将不仅扩大我们在快速增长的实物电商领域的影响力，同时能够更好地发展我们的各项电子商务服务业务，如支付、公众账号和效果广告平台，为我们平台上的所有电商业务创造一个更繁荣的生态系统。”

一直以来腾讯都渴望在电子商务领域取得成功，因此它试图利用其社交平台的庞大用户，尤其是微信用户，来对抗中国电子商务巨头阿里巴巴。

腾讯与京东的联合毫无疑问将借助微信有力开辟电子商务新战场。2017年伊始，腾讯就已经采取一系列措施来扩大微信电子商务领域。先是上个月与多家物流公司达成的合作交易，接着又宣布斥资5000万美元投资大众点评网。

腾讯与京东商城的联姻可视为对中国电商巨头阿里巴巴发起的战书，而且今后将对阿里巴巴构成更大的挑战，阿里巴巴已经在加快其移动社交应用推广。阿里巴巴首席执行官陆兆禧曾表示，会继续进行电子商务的一系列大型投资，继续强化移动端业务——阿里巴巴推出了手机游戏，并加大力度提升聊天应用软件，向手机购物者提供免费数据，甚至向中国的智能手机零售商免费提供。