JD.com Steps Outside Asia: Opens Office in Silicon Valley

The Irish Times believes ‘The networking in Silicon Valley is unparalleled' and we couldn't agree more.

The riches provided by the holy land of tech entrepreneurs are truly enticing.

The latest to be enticed? China's JD.com JD.

JD.com Steps Outside Asia 

On Monday, the Chinese e-Commerce company announced that it has opened the first U.S. office in Santa Clara, CA — right in the heart of Silicon Valley. This is JD's first office outside of Asia.

The new office, primarily dealing with R&D, will simplify interactions between JD.com and American retailers who sell their products on the Chinese marketplace. Also, it will enable the company to employ new technical talent to enhance R&D.

Dennis Weng, chief technical advisor for JD Mall, will oversee the new office. Overall, it will deal with cloud computing, mobile applications and Big Data infrastructure.

Duang! Alibaba is Here Already!

"Duang" (A Silicon Valley coinage used to express anything extreme)!! JD's arch rival Alibaba BABA already has two offices in the Silicon Valley.

However, while Alibaba's offices are dedicated to its cloud business, JD's is more directly related to e-Commerce.

Greg Portell, partner in A.T. Kearney's Consumer Products & Retail and Media Practices, says, "The biggest reason is that they benefit from being closer to the ecosystem of investors and industry talent. Plus, the U.S. is still the most meaningful market in terms of scale and influence for most tech segments."

In Conclusion

Silicon Valley is inimitable. It houses pioneers that created an atmosphere which stirred and attracted entrepreneurial talent.

JD.com CEO Richard Liu realizes this. "Given the scope and strength of American brands, products and capabilities, the U.S. was the obvious choice as we sought a location for our first office outside of Asia", concluded Liu.

Stocks to Consider

JD.com currently sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). Investors may also consider Majesco Entertainment Co. COOL and Xplore Technologies Corp. XPLR carrying the same Zacks Rank as JD.com.

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