-
Chinese Over The Top (OTT) leader, Tencent will invest US$736 million for 19.9% equity interest in 58.com, China’s largest online marketplace serving local merchants and consumers. The move is seen by the industry as to catch-up with e-commerce giant Alibaba Group in their race for online-to-offline (O2O) retail network on the mainland. Tencent provides one of the most popular messaging apps in China that boasts more than 800 million users worldwide.
-
According to a joint statement by both the companies, they will jointly develop the next generation of O2O services leveraging the combined strengths of their respective platforms. 58.com will solidify its leading position in local services by capturing traffic from Tencent’s various online properties such as QQ, Weixin, QQ.com, and QQ browser.
-
Integrating 58.com’s services into these properties will further expand 58.com’s user base, improve the user experience by allowing users to access social tools to find recommended merchants, and help users improve the level of communication between each other and with merchants.
-
