Tencent buys stake in bricks-and-mortar supermarket chain

The South China Morning Post reports that internet giant Tencent has agreed to buy a 5 percent stake for supermarket chain Yonghui Superstores.
- The stake was valued at 4.22 billion yuan ($639 million); shares in Shanghai-listed Yonghui surged around 10 percent at the news.
- In November, Tencent’s key rival Alibaba bought a stake in Sun Art Retail, a supermarket chain, for $2.9 billion.
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Electric cars
Toyota pledges to introduce electric or hybrid versions of all cars by 2025 / FT (paywall)
“Toyota will have more than 10 pure EVs for sale from 2020, starting in China.”
This Chinese startup’s electric SUV is a lot cheaper than Tesla’s / CNN
Shanghai-based startup NIO “unveiled a 7-seater electric SUV at a glitzy launch event in Beijing over the weekend… Starting at 448,000 yuan (about $68,000), the NIO ES8 is nearly 50% cheaper than Tesla’s Model X.” -
Self-driving cars
Beijing gives green light for self-driving car road tests / Xinhua
“Beijing traffic authorities have given the green light for road tests of self-driving cars,” but as we noted last week, “only entities registered in China can apply for the road test,” meaning that foreign autonomous vehicles will be hobbled in their research of Chinese roads. -
Ecommerce
Will they search for that? Chinese learn art of hooking Americans on Amazon / WSJ (paywall)
Chinese companies want to sell directly to customers on Amazon, and are paying for lessons to learn how to do it.
China’s Tencent, JD.com invest $863 million in online retailer Vipshop / CNBC -
Peer to peer and online finance
At least half of China’s online lending platforms could close as regulatory clean-up bites / SCMP -
On-demand economy
Airbnb books first full-year profit in 2017 as China business takes off / CNBC