(Yicai) Sept. 27 -- Chinese e-commerce giants Alibaba Group Holding and JD.com will enable each other’s delivery services on their online marketplaces, and JD.com will also add Alipay, a third-party payment platform operated by Alibaba’s sister company Ant Group, as barriers between the once sparring rivals fall.

JD.com’s logistics services will be available on Hangzhou-based Alibaba’s Taobao and Tmall from mid-October, state broadcaster China Central Television reported today.

JD.com will also integrate delivery and parcel storage services by Alibaba unit Cainiao Logistics, the report said. And Alipay is expected to be activated on the Beijing-based platform before the online Double 11 shopping festival in November, it added.

The tie-up comes the day that Taobao and Tmall launched Tencent Holdings’ e-wallet WeChat Pay, in a landmark move that was announced earlier this month. Alibaba and Tencent were arch rivals for many years and used to ban the use of the other’s services and products on their platforms.

To curb monopolistic behavior by internet companies, Chinese regulators began to call for better connectivity between the big internet platforms in 2021. Soon after, Shenzhen-based Tencent started to ease curbs, allowing users to be redirected to Taobao and Tmall from links in Weixin Channels, WeChat Moments and WeChat Mini App ads.

Alipay and WeChat Pay are the two largest third-party payment platforms in China, together accounting for over 90 percent of the market share.

Editor: Kim Taylor