Why Google has invested $550m in China’s JD.com

American firm hopes to make use of Amazon
rival’s supply chain technology

One-Minute Read

According to TechCrunch, the two companies hope to merge JD.com’s
supply chain technology, which includes a fully-automated
warehouse, with Google’s global reach and customer data in order to
develop “new kinds” of online shopping solutions.

Google will promote JD.com products through its online
shopping platform “across the world” for starters, but the two
firms “have other collaborations in mind for the future”, according
to the tech news site.

The deal is another significant step for Google in its bid to
boost its presence in East Asian markets. 

The firm’s search engine was banned in China in 2010 when the
company refused to censor search results to “comply with local
laws”, The Daily Telegraph reports. 

Since then Google has been looking at other avenues to
increase its investment in East Asian, the newspaper says. The
company bought a stake in Indonesian ride-hailing firm Go-Jek in
January. 

And the previous month saw Google open an artificial
intelligence (AI) research facility in Beijing,
where it hopes to work “closely with the vibrant Chinese AI
research community”.