Walmart has nearly doubled its stake in China’s No. 2 e-commerce site, JD.com.
JD.com, China’s largest online direct sales company, has raised $1 billion, for its JD Finance subsidiary from investors including Sequoia Capital China, China Harvest Investments and China Taiping Insurance.
China e-commerce industry is worth $2.1 trillion in 2014 with the number of users growing by 31.4 percent as reported by China E-Commerce Research Center (CERC). Out of the total amount, $450 billion comes from the online retail business alone. Current market players in the e-commerce are Alibaba, JD.com, and Suning Commerce.
Alibaba is in big trouble as Investors lose confidence over the continuing decline of shares caused by the slow consumer spending brought by the Chinese economic meltdown.
Tencent Holdings will be acquiring a 15% stake in JD.com in a $214.7 million deal to provide a stronger platform that will rival Alibaba Group Holdings in the space, Bloomberg reported.
Tencent Holdings, the biggest Internet company in China, could get a 16% stake in online retailer JD.com, according to a Chinese business newspaper, Reuters reported.
JD.com, China's second-largest e-commerce site, is set to exceed 100 billion yuan ($16.47 billion) in annual sales for the first time in a market that has drawn investment from global retailing names such as Amazon and Wal-Mart.