Baidu completed a strategic investment in a Hong Kong-listed retail technology solution company Youzan last month, with a transaction value of approximately US$30 million. Youzan is known for its e-commerce solutions widely used by WeChat sellers (Weishang).
Prior to this round of investment, Baidu and Youzan announced their partnership at the AI Developers Conference in early July to jointly create a Baidu smart program (similar to WeChat Mini Program) direct e-commerce solution. Youzan became the first e-commerce SaaS service provider of Baidu.
This partnership enables Youzan to receive Baidu's support from various resources. In April 2019, Youzan completed an HKD 1 billion (around $130 million) round of funding led by Tencent.
Baidu chose a "cash plus resource" approach to invest in a smart program service provider, mainly for two reasons. On the one hand, the smart program is set as the core strategic goal of Baidu Mobile in the past two years, and e-commerce is an are...
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