JD.com and Tencent expect big numbers in Nov 11 e-shopping event

E-commerce player JD.com Inc plans to grab more shoppers from its archenemy, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd in the upcoming Nov 11 online shopping festival as they are teaming up with Tencent Holdings Ltd to launch billions of yuan worth of coupons for the special event.

Beijing-based JD.com said on Monday that its investor Tencent Holdings Ltd will help promote the e-commerce company on its widely used social networking applications, WeChat, and mobile QQ during the annual shopping extravaganza.

Xiong Qingyun, head of marketing at JD.com's e-commerce business unit says by partnering with Tencent, JD is going to see record-breaking traffic during the shopping event from Nov 1 to Nov 11.

"Tencent will give first level access to JD's site by using WeChat and Mobile QQ to promote the event. Most importantly, we will team up with 38 brands offering coupons worth 2.5 billion yuan ($394 million) via WeChat's Moments function. We are expecting to reach about 800 million people in China," said Xiong.

Shenzhen-based Tencent owns 15 percent stake in JD.com. The team up is expected to help JD.com gain more mobile-based shoppers from its direct competitor, Alibaba. Tencent has about 600 million active monthly users on WeChat, and 843 active million monthly users on QQ.

In August, Alibaba and Suning Commerce Group Co Ltd created an investment alliance in the electronic retailer. Earlier this month, the two companies announced the integration of Alibaba with Suning's specialty offline stores and delivery services to prepare for the upcoming Nov 11 festival.