Wal-Mart this morning announced that it intends to acquire a minority stake in the holding company of Yihaodian, a massive B2C ecommerce company based in China. The transaction is expected to close within 60 days, the retail giant says.
Launched in July 2008, Yihaodian offers more than 75,000 products ranging from clothing to grocery to consumer electronics. Less than 3 years after launch, the company boasts a whopping 2,000 employees and logistics operations in Shanghai, Beijing, and Guangzhou.
The size of the investment was not disclosed.
Walmart last month acquired social media technology provider Kosmix, and just over a year ago acquired online movie service Vudu.
Worth noting: Facebook, Groupon and Zynga investor DST recently joined a group of investors who’ve put hundreds of millions of dollars into Yihaodian rival 360buy.com.