China’s JD.com And Tencent Sell 574,000 Smartphones In 5-Day Promotion Sale

JD.com Inc (NASDAQ:JD), China’s second-largest e-commerce company, and Tencent Holdings Ltd (HKG:0700) sold 574,000 smartphones in a five-day promotion on the latter’s Mobile QQ messaging service, the two companies said on Monday.

During the promotion, which lasted from Aug. 8 through Aug. 12, the Nokia XL 4G smartphone was made available for consumers through a link within the Mobile QQ app, JD.com said, adding that more than 210,000 units of the handset were ordered on the first day. Monday’s announcement is seen as an effort to show that the $215 million partnership between the companies has paid off.

On Friday, JD.com reported that its quarterly losses widened due to costs related to its deal with Tencent. As part of the deal, the Chinese mobile gaming and social media company took a 15 percent stake in JD.com in March. The stake was later increased to 17.6 percent after JD.com went public in May, Reuters reported. JD.com partnered with Tencent to help compete against Chinese e-commerce leader Alibaba.

According to JD.com, its net loss widened to 582.5 million yuan ($93.9 million) in the quarter ended June 30. In the same quarter last year, the company reported a loss of 28.3 million yuan, Reuters reported.

Last week, Tencent posted a 59 percent jump in its second-quarter net profit. For the three-month period ended in June, the company’s net profit rose to 5.84 billion yuan ($947 million) from 3.68 billion yuan a year earlier.