The US tech giant Google has just invested $550 Million in the Chinese E-commerce site JD.com. This investment is a part of Google’s plan to expand to more emerging Asian industries. Google invested this huge amount to execute some major business expansions and to beat other major competitors like Amazon. If you don’t know, Google has already started investing in the retail sector of Asian tech industry, mostly in India. So there is nothing surprising about this deal.
However, Google has no direct role in the Chinese technology industry as they are having a complete ban in the country for the refusal of search censoring law by the government. So, Google cannot use this partnership to influence in China. However, for JD.com, Google will include this site in the shopping suggestions in the search results and other Google involved places, that will help the JD.com to expand further into a global level, instead of a Chinese only platform. Other potential investors of JD.com include Chinese social media powerhouse Tencent Holdings, the arch-rival of Chinese e-commerce leader Alibaba Group Holding, and Walmart.
Google will get 27.1 million newly issued JD.com Class A ordinary shares as part of the deal. This will give them less than a 1 percent stake in JD, a spokesman for JD said. The two tech companies said they would work together to develop retail infrastructure that can better personalize the shopping experience and reduce friction in a number of markets, including Southeast Asia.