Baidu, Tencent retreat from US$3b tie-up

Hong Kong

BAIDU INC and Tencent Holdings Ltd have pulled out of a US$3 billion venture with one of China's richest men, barely two years after it was launched with the ambition of revolutionising mall shopping.

China's largest search engine and its top Internet company teamed up with billionaire Wang Jianlin's Dalian Wanda Group to set up ffan.com in 2014. At the time, they talked about how the venture could become the world's largest e-commerce platform by - among other things - helping shoppers find stuff in malls, and merchants manage payments and data. Instead, Baidu and Tencent had been replaced as shareholders by a company backed by Mr Wang as of July 7, a corporate filing showed.