Chinese tech giant Alibaba said it has applied to Tencent to bring bargain online shopping platform Taobao Deals to WeChat as a mini-program, according to a report by tech media outlet 36kr on March 25.
Alibaba Vice President Wang Hai said the company was looking forward to the partnership with Tencent, but the application was still in the process of being approved, the report said.
The marks a major e-commerce collaboration between the two large Chinese tech giants.
Bloomberg reported last week that Alibaba planned to launch Taobao Deals Mini Program on WeChat in response to increasing regulatory demands from China's anti-monopoly authorities.
Earlier media reports said Taobao Deals had entered the WeChat Mini Programs and would support WeChat Pay, a rival to Alibaba's payment tool Alipay.
Taobao Deals is a C2M customized goods-focused app that doubled its monthly active users every 20 days in the three months after its launch last March.
A previous internal Alibaba document showed that it would launch Taobao Deals WeChat Mini Program and allow the Taobao Deals app to support WeChat Pay in specific scenarios.
Alibaba reports revenue of $34 billion in fiscal Q3, beating market expectations
