Starbucks and Tencent Holdings Ltd., a leading provider of internet value-added services in China, have announced a strategic partnership to cocreate a new social gifting feature on Tencent's WeChat in early 2017. 

Starbucks said in a press release that the partnership positions it as the first retail brand to combine with WeChat in China in order to bring a locally relevant social gifting and digital payment experience to users.

Tapping into 846 million global monthly active user accounts (as of the third quarter of 2016), the integrated feature will enable customers in China to instantly and conveniently gift Starbucks to a friend or loved one, the release said.

As of Dec. 8, Starbucks customers will also be able to use WeChat Pay to make purchases at nearly 2,500 Starbucks stores across mainland China.

"Starbucks and Tencent share similar values to enable greater human connections through our respective products and services, and I am pleased to partner with an established and respected social and mobile industry leader in China," said Belinda Wong, CEO of Starbucks China. "This new strategic partnership will leverage the strengths of both Starbucks and WeChat to create a true online-to-offline social gifting platform that will deepen our engagement with our customers in a unique and powerful way. Just as Starbucks cards are among the most gifted around the globe, we aspire to also become the most gifted brand digitally in China."

"The strategic cooperation between WeChat and Starbucks enables us to bring the unique Starbucks retail experience seamlessly to hundreds of millions of WeChat users in China," said Allen Zhang, senior executive vice president of Tencent. "We are happy to be the partner of choice of Starbucks and look forward to deepening our connection to our users through the highest quality services."