Chinese online consumer electronics retailer 51Buy.com has announced that it will join Shenzhen-based internet company Tencent (0700.HK) to invest RMB 500 mln in an e-commerce price war, focused primarily on digital consumer electronics and electronic appliances. Additionally, 51Buy.com plans to complete its integration with Tencent by the end of the year to take on Tencent's e-commerce business, with a sales target of over RMB 10 bln before the end of 2012.

According to an inside source, Tencent's e-commerce business will include both a self-operated platform and an open merchant platform. 51Buy.com will be responsible for the self-operated side, while online apparel retailer Okaybuy, B2C e-commerce site Yihaodian.com, and other B2C's will join with key merchants currently on Tencent's (0700.HK) B2C e-commerce platform QQ Mall in running the open platform. Over the course of the next three years, 51Buy.com will be constructing an 800,000 square meter warehousing operations center, whose location has yet to be disclosed. This year, the company completed construction on six large warehousing centers in Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzhen, Wuhan, Chengdu, and Xi'an.