Tencent augments its retail arm with investment in neighbourhood fresh-food stores

Corporate registration information shows that Tencent and its wholly-owned subsidiary Tencent Mobility Limited have become shareholders of Chongqing Yipienhong Technology Company Limited, which runs community fresh-food chain Yipien Fresh.

Tencent holds a 2.86% stake in Yipien, which owns offline stores ranging in size from just a few dozen square meters to 800 square metres and also features online ordering and offline pick-up and group buying.

Tencent Mobility holds an 11.43% stake in Yipien.

This investment, the amount of which hasn’t yet been disclosed, follows Tencent’s investment in Yonghui, one of the fastest-growing bricks-and-mortar Chinese grocery chains, e-commerce giant JD.com, and social commerce app Pinduoduo which targets bargain-hunters in China’s smaller cities. In addition, Tencent and JD.com also created a fresh-food supermarket chain 7Fresh.