Google announces $550 million strategic investment in Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com

Alphabet, the parent company of Google announced on 18th June that they have made a strategic investment in JD.com, China’s largest e-commerce group by revenue.

The $550 million investment of Google in Chinese largest e-retailer – JD.com – is the latest move by Google to enter in Asian e-commerce market. Following the footprints of Google, it is anticipated that other ventures from Silicon Valley will also likely expand in Asian markets. The two companies plan to collaborate on “a range of strategic initiatives,” which will utilize Google’s technology advantages and JD’s depth of experience in supply chain, e-marketing and logistics.

The partnership will allow JD.com to feature its product on Google’s shopping store while Google will leverage it’s e-marketing services and logistics.

JD.com’s Chief Strategy Officer Jianwen Liao said:

“This partnership with Google opens up a broad range of possibilities to offer a superior retail experience to consumers throughout the world. This marks an important step in the process of modernizing global retail. As we celebrate our June 18 anniversary sale, this partnership opens a new chapter in our history.”

JD.com was launched in 2004 and now valued around $600 billion as based on its NASDAQ share price. The company has entered into various strategetic partnerships with global companies like Walmart in 2016 as it bought Walmart’s e-commerce division in China, Yihaodian, which gave Walmart a 5 percent stake in JD.com.

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Recently, Google also signed a patent- sharing agreement with Chinese tech giant Tencent, which is valued around $500 billion, and covers “a broad range of products and technologies” and is “long-term.” The two firms pledged to work together on future innovation and technology. Last year in December, Google announced the creation of an Al Lab in Beijing, which is Google’s first such service in China.