JD Pingou to Launch Huge Investment Drive, Join WeChat Shopping Portal
Zhao Chenting
DATE:  Jul 31 2019
/ SOURCE:  yicai
JD Pingou to Launch Huge Investment Drive, Join WeChat Shopping Portal JD Pingou to Launch Huge Investment Drive, Join WeChat Shopping Portal

(Yicai Global) July 30 -- JD Pingou, the social networking and online retail arm of Chinese e-commerce giant JD, will launch a massive investment campaign next month and join the top-level shopping portal of Tencent's WeChat, company sources told Yicai Global.

JD Pingou has revamped its policy to make all categories open to investment and cut the platform's usage fee, the Beijing-based company said on July 25. JD has also reclassified Pingou as its department for social networking and e-commerce to highlight the importance of the business.

Its entry into WeChat, China's largest social networking platform, will bring new online shopping experience to users and help merchants quickly attract consumers from lower-tier cities. Starting in September, users can go directly to JD Pingou's pages through the shopping gateway in WeChat's Discover section.

JD debuted JD Pingou in 2014. The company has placed more importance on Pingou since last year because of the rapid growth of the so-called social e-commerce model represented by Pinduoduo, in which discounts are used to encourage users to share shopping tips with friends on social networking apps.

JD renewed its contract with Tencent Holdings for three years in May, and the e-commerce platform will continue to benefit from WeChat, said Xu Lei, the rotating chief executive of JD's retail group.

The two will create a new platform that is different from existing models, deeply tap the WeChat market -- a traffic portal for more than 1 billion users -- and entice users from lower-tier Chinese cities, Xu added.

Tencent took a 15 percent stake in JD for USD214 Million when it went public in the US in 2014, later becoming the largest shareholder with a 21.25 percent stake and providing traffic support to JD by opening its social platform. According to JD, about 25 percent of new users came from WeChat in the past five years.

Editor: Dou Shicong

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Keywords:   JD Pingou,JD.Com,Tencent,Wechat