Tencent acquires 20% stake of Chinese Craigslist, 58.com for $736 million

Chinese tech giant Tencent, in an effort to expand its Ecommerce reach in China, has acquired a 20% stake in private listing portal 58.com for $736 million.

58.com is a C2C private listing website comparable to Craigslist.com, and boasts an average of 130 million unique monthly visitors. The classifieds website also launched an IPO on the New York Stock Exchange Stock Exchange A stock exchange, also known as a securities exchange or bourse represents is a facility where stockbrokers and traders can buy and sell securities.This includes shares of stock, bonds, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), or other financial instruments. By extension, stock exchanges can also provide facilities for the issue and redemption of such securities and instruments and capital events including the payment of income and dividendsStock exchanges have developed into a permanent fixture in the fin A stock exchange, also known as a securities exchange or bourse represents is a facility where stockbrokers and traders can buy and sell securities.This includes shares of stock, bonds, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), or other financial instruments. By extension, stock exchanges can also provide facilities for the issue and redemption of such securities and instruments and capital events including the payment of income and dividendsStock exchanges have developed into a permanent fixture in the fin Read this Term this past October. An initial price of $15 per share quickly rose to $22 during its first day of being listed, and now averages at around $50+.

As part of the agreement Tencent has purchased the 20% stake for $40 per share, just over 24% less than the listed $51.77 per share price, according to the when the market closed this past Thursday, June 26^th.

Similar to other services in Tencent’s arsenal, 58.com listings will be integrated into the firm’s popular social and messaging application WeChat. Other integrated services offered within WeChat include Taxi hailing application Didi Dache and mobile Ewallet WePay.

Tencent’s continued Ecommerce expansion in China raises the stakes in its rivalry with Chinese Ecommerce and tech goliath Alibaba. Both firms offer a wide array of competing services such as mobile Payments Payments One of the bases of mediums of exchange in the modern world, a payment constitutes the transfer of a legal currency or equivalent from one party in exchange for goods or services to another entity. The payments industry has become a fixture of modern commerce, though the players involved and means of exchange have dramatically shifted over time.In particular, a party making a payment is referred to as a payer, with the payee reflecting the individual or entity receiving the payment. Most commonl One of the bases of mediums of exchange in the modern world, a payment constitutes the transfer of a legal currency or equivalent from one party in exchange for goods or services to another entity. The payments industry has become a fixture of modern commerce, though the players involved and means of exchange have dramatically shifted over time.In particular, a party making a payment is referred to as a payer, with the payee reflecting the individual or entity receiving the payment. Most commonl Read this Term, cab hailing, and mPOS solutions.

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