Talks that were rumored last month to be in action have now been confirmed as Tencent has taken a 15% stake in Chinese upstart e-commerce firm JD.com for about USD215 million.

The investment puts both Tencent and JD.com in a better position to fight China's e-commerce leader Alibaba, and Alibaba's consumer trading site Taobao.com, which commands upwards of 85% of all e-commerce activity in China depending on whose statistics one trusts.

Tencent Holdings Limited will buy 351,678,637 ordinary shares, representing 15% of the outstanding JD.com ordinary shares on a Pre-IPO basis immediately after the completion of the pre-IPO subscription.

JD.com, also known as Jindong, plans its initial public offering in the U.S. very soon.