Google Makes a $550 Million Investment in JD.Com

Google announced on June 18 that it would make a $550 million investment in China's e-commerce giant JD.com, forming an extensive strategic partnership, news website thepaper.cn reported.

According to the agreement, Google will receive about 27 million shares of JD.com's newly issued Class A common stock at an issue price of US$20.29 dollars per share.

It is estimated that Google will obtain approximately 0.93 percent of the shares in JD.com after the transaction.

The pair is set to cooperate on a series of projects, one of which is to develop retail solutions in various regions around the world, including Southeast Asia, the United States and Europe.

Combining JD.com's expertise in supply chain and logistics and Google's technological advantages, the two companies will jointly explore and build next-generation retail infrastructure solutions to provide consumers with a personalized shopping experience.

"This partnership with Google opens up a broad range of possibilities to offer a superior retail experience to consumers throughout the world," Jianwen Liao, JD.com's chief strategy officer, said in a statement.

"We are excited to partner with JD.com and explore new solutions for retail ecosystems around the world to enable helpful, personalized and frictionless shopping experiences that give consumers the power to shop wherever and however they want," Philipp Schindler, Google's chief business officer, said in a statement.

The cooperation between Google and JD.com is conducive to their expansion of business in the world, according to Reuters.

Google's support would also bolster JD.com's ability to compete with China's largest e-commerce platform Alibaba.

Partnering with JD.com also could help Google re-enter the mainland Chinese market, which it exited in 2010 after clashing with government regulators, and compete with American e-commerce giant Amazon.com in the retail industry.