Martin Lau, president of Tencent, and Richard Liu of JD.com shake hands during the announcement of their strategic partnership in e-commerce in March. (Photo : www.prnewswire.com)
Tencent Holdings Ltd. and JD.com Inc. have created a partnership, further reinforcing their e-commerce ties and expected to exert impact on traditional marketing and advertising industry in the country, the China Daily reported.
According to the report, the project was launched by two companies on Saturday, Oct.17, with the aim to provide companies with solutions in building their brand images and enhancing their marketing performances.
Under the project called "Brand Commerce," Tencent's social networking data will integrate with JD.com's online shopping data to help companies reach their target buyers in the most ideal online channel and, at the same time, facilitate purchases for consumers.
Liu Qiangdong, chief executive officer of Beijing-based JD.com, said that the project will bring a better shopping experience for customers as well as enable companies to achieve better sales performance.
"We don't want to boost the number of advertisements. On the contrary, we want to reduce it by advertising to the right group of people," Liu said.
Tencent, which has about 600 million monthly active users on WeChat and 843 million monthly active users on QQ, already owns 15 percent stake in JD.com.
Pony Ma, chief executive officer of Tencent, said that the company's social networking tools have access to a wide range of age groups.
"Through further cooperating with JD, companies are able to better understand their customers and reach their target buyer in a more accurate way," said Ma.
JD.com's cooperation with Tencent is seen as the latest move in its ongoing battle with Alibaba, its top e-commerce rival.
The report said that the population of Chinese online shoppers may soon reach its peak due to the slowdown in China's economy, prompting e-commerce players to venture to other industries to build and preserve their growth in the future.
On Friday, Oct. 16, Alibaba Group announced its proposal to take full control of Youku Tudou Inc., a leading Internet video company in China, as a move to bring its presence into the digital entertainment industry.
