Chinese real estate conglomerate Dalian Wanda is teaming up with two of China's largest internet companies in an $814m ecommerce joint venture aimed at loosening Alibaba's stranglehold on the country's booming ecommerce market, the FT's Charles Clover writes.
Baidu, China's largest search engine, and Tencent, Asia's largest listed technology company, will each hold 15 per cent of Hong Kong-registered Wanda Ecommerce, with the remaining 70 per cent owned by privately held Wanda.
The venture will set up ecommerce services in Wanda's 107 commercial real estate properties, including Wanda Plaza shopping malls and resorts, which the company called "the largest offline consumption platform in China," with 1.5bn visitors expected this year.