JD.com and Xinchao on the up
JD.com is leading a consortium for a 1-billion-yuan (US$145 million) investment in elevator-ad firm Xinchao Media to strengthen collaboration for more precise advertising placements through offline channels.
Xinchao Media has been trying to shake Shanghai-headquartered Focus Media’s leading position in the elevator-ad segment.
"Future cooperation in the media field can help JD.com expand user-level connectivity and growth as we're highly complementary in software and hardware capabilities," commented Chief Strategic Officer of JD Liao Jianwen.
The tie-up with JD allows the latecomer to optimize efficiency for offline advertising while also enabling JD to grow customer base as well as link brands closer with shoppers.
JD didn’t say how much it would invest or how many stake it would take, and didn’t name the other investors.
The two companies plan to collaborate on ways to merge offline media and digital marketing, as well as help brands' digital transition.
Baidu also led a group for a 2.1-billion-yuan funding in Xinchao Media last November, and also claimed that it hoped the partnership would create synergies through data advantages.
Founded in 2007, Chengdu-based Xinchao claims coverage of 700,000 elevators in office and residential buildings in over 100 domestic cities.
Focus Media has been delisted from the Nasdaq and had a backdoor listing in Shenzhen in 2016 but its share price has shed more than 50 percent since August last year.
A media agency source told Shanghai Daily that outdoor media are still an indispensable part of brand campaigns, although it is still too early to tell the results between such tie-ups.
These moves follow Alibaba’s acquisition of a 6.62 percent stake in Shenzhen-listed outdoor and digital advertising service provider Focus Media for 9.63 billion yuan last year.
