China's leading real estate developer Dalian Wanda Group announced Friday that it would launch an e-commerce joint venture with domestic Internet powerhouses Tencent Holdings and Baidu Inc, a move that shows the three enterprises' firm determination to promote online business but also raises queries about whether they can find a way to make money through the venture.

The joint venture, with its initial investment hitting 5 billion yuan ($811.07 million), will be 70 percent held by Wanda, while social media firm Tencent and search engine leader Baidu will share the remaining stake equally, according to a press release.

By teaming up with the two leading Internet companies, Wanda will build the largest online to off-line (O2O) platform globally, said the press release.

The O2O model, which used to be merely a theoretical concept for many Chinese consumers, is currently widely applied by retailers from the service sector, such as catering operators. For example, O2O allows customers to get access to promotions and coupons via the Internet and then use them in physical stores.

"O2O will be the biggest piece of cake in the e-commerce sector in the future … while the cake so far has not been shared," Wang Jianlin, chairman of Wanda, said at the press conference in Shenzhen, South China's Guangdong Province, where Tencent is headquartered.

To support the operation of the new platform, the three companies "will invest a total of 20 billion yuan within five years," Wang disclosed.

Despite the comprehensive business assets, strong capital strength, and considerable Internet resources possessed by the three enterprises, it seems that they still have not figured out a definite way to make money so far.

"It will take two to three years or even a shorter period [for us] to make it clear what the Wanda e-commerce company looks like, and how much value it can produce," Wang said.

Wang noted that the service offered by the e-commerce company, which is expected to start trial operations within this year, will cover all plazas, hotels and resorts of Wanda nationwide, but didn't specify how to achieve that target.

The three companies will start some "deep cooperation" including connecting their membership system and accounts together and integrating their databases, said the press release.

"The exact O2O business models can be diversified, and both domestic and foreign companies are still trying to develop a successful model," Zhang Yi, CEO and chairman of Shenzhen-based iiMedia Research Group, said.

Zhang Ping, general manager of Corporate Research Center of INSITE Asset Management Group, a commercial real estate management company, said that in the initial period a new O2O model will be attractive for young buyers who are interested in using high-tech tools for shopping.

Despite the unclear physical image of the new O2O platform, industry watchers still believe cooperation among the three companies is "wise" as each of them has complementary advantages.

"Wanda urgently needs to transform its business model in the retail sector to survive," said Zhang Ping.

Zhang Yi noted that "combining the three together will be a win-win solution." 

The three players in the joint venture have all previously launched individual e-commerce websites, but those sites have not proven to be very successful. For instance, Wanda already has an O2O website, wanhui.cn, which it launched in December 2013, but it is still largely unknown after about eight months.

With the new venture, Wanda could achieve an online extension of its huge off-line assets including shopping; while Tencent, which has advantages in WeChat payment, and Baidu, which is strong in database and searching, could gain affluent resources of retail, according to Zhang Yi.

But whether the cooperation can ultimately succeed depends on the inner integration of the two Internet companies and Wanda, said Zhang Yi.

Another key factor for the success of the partnership is attracting consumers through precisely analyzing their shopping habits and scheming tailor-made sales strategies for them after the O2O platform is launched, said Zhang Ping.

As well as the diversified predictions on the prospects of the joint venture, the cooperation between Tencent and Baidu, which used to be rivals, also raised much attention.

"This is the first time for us [Baidu and Tencent] to cooperate together … Integration will be a development trend among Internet enterprises," Ma Huateng, Tencent's founder and CEO, said at the press conference.

Some industry watchers also saw the launch of the joint venture as targeting Alibaba Group, China's biggest e-commerce company, which is expected to head for a record-setting US IPO in September.