In the war for the Chinese Internet, messaging giant Tencent is taking the battle to rival Alibaba's territory as never before.

Tencent, a leader in online messaging and gaming, said Monday it will pay $215 million for a 15% stake in online retailer JD.com, in advance of JD.com's planned U.S. initial public offering. That appears cheap, valuing the entire company at below tangible book value. But Tencent is also giving JD.com the bulk of its online shopping sites, essentially outsourcing its e-commerce operations.

tangible:有形资产,切实的            outsourcing:外包,外购

Until now, Tencent has struggled to take ground from Alibaba, the dominant player in online commerce. Alibaba's Taobao site has a virtual monopoly in person-to-person online trading, similar to eBay in the U.S. In the business-to-consumer space, Alibaba's grip through its TMall site isn't as tight: about half the market by transaction volume, according to research firm Analysys International. Second place is JD.com with 18%. Add in Tencent's small e-commerce operations and the Tencent-JD.com team commands nearly a quarter of the market.

monopoly:垄断,专卖

That's a good launching pad from which to take on Alibaba. Tencent will direct traffic to JD.com stores from its massively popular WeChat and QQ messaging platforms. And JD.com can leverage Tencent's payment platform, resolving one of the site's main shortcomings, especially in comparison to Alibaba's well-liked Alipay.

leverage:杠杆,手段,影响力

JD.com still faces challenges. Unlike Alibaba, which leaves logistics to third parties, JD.com has an army of 18,000 delivery people and a network of warehouses to maintain. That labor and capital-intensive model left gross margins of just 9.8% in the first nine months of 2013, and on a net basis the company was barely profitable, according JD.com's IPO filings. That compares to a 73% gross margin for Alibaba over the same period.

U.S. investors have long tolerated low margins at Amazon as it pursues growth, on the theory that its dominant position will allow it to tweak its business at some point to turn on the profit gusher. Whether investors show similar patience with upstart JD.com remains to be seen.

For Tencent, betting on JD.com makes more sense than continuing to invest in its own e-commerce sites. Together, the two firms make a formidable rival to Alibaba. Long quiet, China's e-commerce front is about to see some real action.

formidable:强大的,令人敬畏的

每日英语:Tencent Fights for China's Online Shoppers的更多相关文章

  1. 每日英语:Dashing the China Dream

    Much has been said about what the 'China Dream' really means to many Chinese -- whether it is nation ...

  2. 每日英语:4G in China: A bigger deal than the iPhone

    Forget the breathless coverage of China Mobile offering the iPhone for a moment. Yes, it's huge news ...

  3. 每日英语:No Consensus: China Debate on Women's Roles

    A woman's place is in the home. consensus:一致,舆论,合意 That was the resounding message from Jiang Xipei, ...

  4. 每日英语:A Different Color: China's Chameleonic Politics

    China has tried your form of government and found it wanting. That was the message delivered by Chin ...

  5. 每日英语:why can't China produce world-class CEO?

    The appointment of India-born Satya Nadella as Microsoft Corp.'s CEO has caused a bit of a stir in C ...

  6. 每日英语:Does China Face a Reading Crisis?

    For much of the last year, intellectuals and officials in China -- land of world-beating students an ...

  7. 每日英语:KFC's Crisis in China Tests Ingenuity of Man Who Built Brand

    Sam Su for years ran one of the highest-flying foreign business operations in China. These days, he' ...

  8. 每日英语:China Destroys Six Tons of Confiscated Ivory

    BEIJING—Chinese government officials destroyed more than six tons of ivory that had been illegally s ...

  9. 每日英语:U.S. Media Firms Stymied in China

    China's recent clampdown on foreign media is crimping the expansion plans of Western news organizati ...

随机推荐

  1. Arduino和C51之串口通信

    技术:51单片机.Arduino.串口通信   概述 本文主要讲解串口通信技术的使用方法,并通过串口点灯实验介绍了51单片机和Arduino串口的使用,为初学者学习串口知识提供帮助 详细 代码下载:h ...

  2. IBatis.Net 视频教程 原创教程

    IBatis.Net 视频教程 列文件:共21个 Ibatis.Net 第01课 了解 和下载.avi Ibatis.Net 第02课 搭建简单三层项目 引入Ibatis.avi ibatis.net ...

  3. [转载]RHEL-6启动时提示:“/usr/libexec/gconf-sanit

    原文地址:RHEL-6启动时提示:"/usr/libexec/gconf-sanity-check-2 exited with status 256"作者:huage 系统环境:R ...

  4. tf.gfile

    一.功能和目的 tf.gfile模块定义在tensorflow/python/platform/gfile.py,但其源代码实现主要位于tensorflow/tensorflow/python/lib ...

  5. 第一次使用Mac

    Mac禁用掉默认输入法 搜狗输入法已经包含中文.英文输入法了,其余输入法可以删除掉.按ctrol键的时候本来应该是搜狗输入法中英文切换,结果却是搜狗输入法和ABC输入法之间互相切换. 打开键盘偏好设置 ...

  6. java struts2入门学习实例--使用struts进行验证

    一.为什么要进行验证? 验证几乎是注册登录的必须前提,验证的主要作用有两点: 1.安全性 2.对用户提供差异化服务. 二.如何验证? ActionSupport类中有一个validate()方法,这是 ...

  7. POJ 2230 Watchcow (欧拉回路)

    Watchcow Time Limit: 3000MS   Memory Limit: 65536K Total Submissions: 5258   Accepted: 2206   Specia ...

  8. mac下 cordova 搭建

    最近遇到一个cordova搭建的项目,于是看了看如何搭建这个.  这个其实 和 phoneGap 差不多,都是为了方便html跨平台才产生的产物.  cordova  也可以生成  iOS  和 安卓 ...

  9. mvc 使用预置队列类型存储异常对象

    using PaiXie.Utils; using System; using System.Collections.Generic; using System.Linq; using System. ...

  10. C++虚函数工作原理

    一.虚函数的工作原理      虚函数的实现要求对象携带额外的信息,这些信息用于在运行时确定该对象应该调用哪一个虚函数.典型情况下,这一信息具有一种被称为 vptr(virtual table poi ...