Chinese online media giant Sina said it has entered into a strategic alliance with Alibaba Group to jointly explore social commerce and develop new marketing solutions.
The tie-up will involve Sina’s Weibo as well as Alibaba’s Taobao (China) Software and Zhejiang Tmall.com Technology.
The aim is to enable merchants on Alibaba's e-commerce platforms to better connect and build relationships with Weibo users.
Sina and Alibaba will also cooperate in the areas of user account connectivity, data exchange, online payment and online marketing, among other things, They will explore new business models for social commerce based on the interactions of the hundreds of millions of users on Weibo and on Alibaba's e-commerce platforms.
The alliance is expected to generate approximately $380 million in advertising and social commerce services revenues in aggregate for Weibo over the next three years.
"We believe e-commerce will play a vital role in building an eco-system around Weibo's open platform," said Charles Chao, chairman and CEO of Sina.
Alibaba, through a wholly owned subsidiary, has also invested $586 million to purchase shares representing 18% of Weibo. The deal gives Alibaba an option to raise these stake to 30%.