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Google invests $550M in China's JD.com for e-commerce expansion

The company's got its eyes on shoppers in Southeast Asia.

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Marrian Zhou is a Beijing-born Californian living in New York City. She joined CNET as a staff reporter upon graduation from Columbia Journalism School. When Marrian is not reporting, she is probably binge watching, playing saxophone or eating hot pot.
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"People in Southeast Asia alone are expected to spend $88.1 billion online by 2025," said Karim Temsamani, Google's president of Asia-Pacific operations.

 CNET Asia

Google is venturing into Asian e-commerce with the help of a local powerhouse.

The company said Monday it will invest $550 million in JD.com, a leading Chinese e-commerce company also known as Jing Dong, to provide consumers easier options to shop online and tap into the Southeast Asian market.

"The Asia-Pacific region is one of the largest and fastest growing e-commerce marketplaces in the world," Karim Temsamani, Google's president of Asia-Pacific operations, said in a statement. "People in Southeast Asia alone are expected to spend $88.1 billion online by 2025."

The partnership will merge JD.com's supply chain and logistics focus with Google's technology, according to Google. JD.com will also join Google Shopping and expand the product selection there.

Google  isn't the first US-based company to partner with JD.com. In 2016, Walmart sold its Chinese venture, Yihaodian, to JD.com in exchange for a 5 percent stake in the company.

JD.com is issuing 27.1 million shares of stock to Google as part of the deal, Google said.