Alibaba acquires VC-backed Chinese app platform Wandoujia

Local media reported the deal was worth $200 million but this was denied by Wandoujia's founder Junyu Wang.

Founded in December 2010, Wandoujia started out by developing a desktop manager for Android operating systems. It focused on building an app search engine in addition to an app store and claims to be the first mobile platform in China to integrate content across apps, games, videos and music.

Wandoujia was among the first batch of projects incubated by Innovation Works and in 2011 received $8 million from the Innovation Works Development Fund and DCM.

These two investors also contributed capital to the first tranche of a Series B round in January 2014, which was led by SoftBank. Two months later, Goldman Sachs and SoftBank Ventures Korea made follow-on investments in the company to complete the $120 million round. It valued Wandoujia at more than $1 billion.

At that time, the company claimed to have more than 300 million users, with daily app downloads exceeding 30 million. However, it was reportedly suffering from internal conflicts and increased competition from smart phone makers such as Xiaomi and Huawei, which have set up their own app stores.

In 2013, Chinese search engine giant Baidu spent $1.85 billion to acquire mobile app store and game operator 91 Wireless as part of efforts to shift from desktop computing to mobile internet.

• Tweet  
• Facebook  
• LinkedIn  
• Google plus  
• Save this article  
• Send to  

• Topics
• Greater China
• Trade sale
• Venture
• Technology
• China
• TMT
• Alibaba Group
• M&A
• DCM-Doll Capital Management
• Softbank
• Innovation Works
• Goldman Sachs