Proving that there is more than one tech giant on the Chinese stage, Tencent Holdings Ltd., has announced that it will purchase roughly 20 percent of 58.com Inc., for approximately $736 million. 58.com is China’s answer to Craigslist.
Tencent’s main business is in online games and social networks, and it is the owner and operator of WeChat, China’s largest social messaging service with 355 million users. The move follows rival and ecommerce giant Alibaba’s decision to turn mobile-browser company UCWeb into a wholly owned unit.
Beijing-based 58.com will provide users of Tencent’s networks with local information that might be useful, like job listings, merchants’ locations or home rental opportunities. This is one of many deals announced by the company sine the beginning of 2014. That list also includes a $215 million purchase of a 15 percent stake in Chinese e-commerce company JD.com, a $180 million deal to buy 15 percent of online real-estate-services firm Leju Holdings and a $500 million deal to buy 28 percent of Korean mobile games firm CJ Games Corp.
Despite Tencent’s buying binge, they still trail rival Alibaba’s epic pre-IPO spending sprees. The company has spent $4 billion since the commencement of 2014, and is positioned to take home $20 million or more in their forthcoming IPO.
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