JD.com moves to merge Tencent's e-commerce business

A detailed plan by JD.com Inc, China's second-largest online retailer by market share, to merge the e-commerce business of Tencent Holdings Ltd after the two Internet firms set up a strategic partnership in early March was leaked on Tuesday. [Photo by Long Wei / Asianewsphoto]

A detailed plan by JD.com Inc, China's second-largest online retailer by market share, to merge the e-commerce business of Tencent Holdings Ltd after the two Internet firms set up a strategic partnership in early March was leaked on Tuesday.

Under the agreement the pair inked earlier, the Shenzhen-based Internet giant Tencent will take a 15 percent stake of Beijing-based JD.com and JD will acquire the less popular online shopping platforms — wanggou.com, paipai.com and yixun.com — from Tencent.

Kate Kui, senior vice-president of JD.com, said in an internal e-mail that was leaked on Tuesday that her company will offer incentives to encourage retailers to move from the online platform of Tencent's wanggou.com to JD's open platform.

"Once the move has been completed, wanggou.com will no longer open for business," Kui said in the e-mail.

Kui also said Tencent's paipai.com is expected to change its current business model and set up a new strategy. She added that the huge traffic on Tencent is expected to start to kick in to JD's online business by the end of April.

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