Friday 19 Apr 2024
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This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on January 12, 2016.

HONG KONG: China’s Meilishuo.com, a fashion retailer backed by Tencent Holdings Ltd, is merging with rival Mogujie.com to form a company with US$3 billion (RM13.20 billion) in sales, marking the latest alliance in the country’s e-commerce industry.

Mogujie founder Chen Qi will become the chief executive officer of the merged entity, and Tencent will increase its investment, according to a statement by the new company. The combined company, with sales of 20 billion yuan (RM13.33 billion) last year, also is valued at US$3 billion, according to an e-mail sent to employees yesterday by Chen.

The deal will help the companies compete with Alibaba Group Holding Ltd and JD.com Inc, which dominate a Chinese e-commerce industry projected to expand to 3.6 trillion yuan this year. Smaller operators are combining to gain scale and end costly battles for market share. The combination of the fashion sites, both backed by Hillhouse Capital Management, follows the mergers of travel sites Ctrip.com International Ltd and Qunar Cayman Islands Ltd and group buying start-ups Meituan.com and Dianping.com. — Bloomberg

 

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