JD.com buys 5-star Beijing hotel for $400m

A subsidiary of JD.com, a Chinese e-commerce company, has paid 2.7 billion yuan ($400 million) to acquire a Beijing hotel, which it plans to use as office space.

JD.com said it will turn the Jade Palace Hotel in Beijing into space for research and development, as well as offices, to support the company’s future development in the Haidian district of Beijing, where China’s Zhongguancun technology hub and top universities are located. Zhongguancun is home to nearly 9,000 hi-tech firms, including some of China’s biggest Internet companies, such as Nasdaq-traded Baidu and Sina Corp.

JD’s move to strengthen its foothold in downtown Beijing bucks the trend among Chinese tech firms who are escaping tech hubs and shifting their R&D centers and headquarters to second-tier cities, where they can access more affordable space, avail of lower salaries and tap preferential policies offered by local governments, according to TechNode.com.

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