China's technology giant Tencent is partnering with online shopping firm JD in a mutually beneficial move that is expected to ramp up the two company's ecommerce operations and put it on an even keel with Alibaba, the leading Chinese ecommerce site.

"We are pleased to combine our thriving and fast growing ecommerce initiative with JD's in this strategic partnership, and support them to further grow and provide even better ecommerce services to our collective users," Tencent President Martin Lau said in a statement Monday.

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"Our strategic partnership with JD will not only extend our presence in the fast-growing physical goods ecommerce market, but also allow us to better develop our enabling services such as payment, public accounts and performance-based advertising network to create a more prosperous ecosystem for overall ecommerce activities on our platforms," the statement added.

Under the deal, Tencent will buy a 15 per cent stake in JD for US$214.6 million, and JD will acquire the business, logistics and personnel of Tencent's e-stores, QQ Wanggou and Paipai.

Wanggou will be integrated into JD.com, marking its first venture into C2C commerce. JD's B2C site, on the other hand, will be integrated into WeChat, Tencent's popular messaging app.

JD is also acquiring a minority stake in Tencent's Yixun ecommerce business, which is already integrated into WeChat, but only as a basic shopping portal.  

With JD's proven expertise in logistics and inventory management, Yixun is projected to turn into a more exciting marketplace as JD is known for its lightning-speed shipments, offering 24-hour delivery to 156 cities in China.

For its part, Tencent has recently been leveraging the popularity of its WeChat messaging platform to fuel online shopping, expanding the coverage of WeChat payments to include more brands, retailers and estores in the app.

With 272 million monthly active WeChat users around the world, Tencent's partnership with an ecommerce expert like JD is forecast to shake up China's online marketplace in ways that could send Alibaba rethinking its own business strategy.