Tencent, in an yet another effort to take advantage of location based services, has acquired 11.28% stake in NavInfo for $187 million.
The moves comes less than a month since AutoNavi, a Chinese mapping service, agreed to be acquired at $1.5 billion valuation by Alibaba.
Also, just over three months ago, Tencent invested (via a rumored a 100% stake for $9.92 million) in a local mapping service Linktech Navi.
Tencent started its map service in late-2011 under the name Soso, but recently rebranded to Tencent Maps.
NavInfo, listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, provides both industry-facing and consumers services including - digital maps, telematics, and dynamic traffic Information that covers more than 30 major cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen.
The daily user volume that access NavInfo's map data via various channels exceed 150 million, according to the company.
It is unclear at this point whether Tencent will integrate NavInfo map data services into its mobile messaging app WeChat.