China's NetEase to facilitate intl e-commerce worth $11 billion

China's second-largest gaming publisher NetEase Inc is deepening its push in cross-border e-commerce, pledging to source $11 billion worth of goods from key overseas markets to satiate China's rising demand for quality imported items.

Over the next three years, its cross-border website Kaola would spend on merchandise worth $3 billion from the United States, 500 billion yen from Japan, and 3 billion euros from Europe, according to a company statement.

Products would cover maternity and infant care, cosmetics, apparel and handbags.

Its latest endeavors included a partnership agreement signed this week with nine French brands and the 131-year-old Danish supermarket Irma, said Kaola's CEO Zhang Lei.

In an open letter circulated to media Tuesday, Ding Lei, CEO of NetEase, said he would bank on cross-border e-commerce to transform the company's image in three to five years.

Statistics showed that early investments have started to bear fruit. The division that houses Kaola now accounts for 21 percent of the company's revenue, and sales generated from that business are projected to reach $9 billion, according to Bhavtosh Vajpayee, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein investment management firm.

According to Chinese consultancy iiMedia, Kaola currently leads the cross-border e-commerce segment with 24 percent of the market share, followed by Alibaba Group's Tmall Global and Vipshop.