Century 21 and Ke.com, one of two major players in the real estate brokerage industry in China, announced cooperation on Monday that will involve sharing data and resources.

This move, according to the top management of the two companies, is a starting point, with more collaboration in rentable houses and customer resources in the pipeline. And this alliance is expected to promote the development of the whole industry.

Century 21 launched in 2016 a new entrepreneurial mode—M+ Shared--that implemented a sharing system based on the housing platform, according to Lu Hang, president and CEO of Century 21 China.

The ACN network of Ke.com and the M+ model of Century 21 both commit to improving operational efficiency through deeper sharing and cooperation on information and resources.

"We aim to build infrastructure for service providers, and we will promote cross-brand cooperation with Century 21 through data and information sharing," said Peng Yongdong, CEO of Ke.com.

As of April 16, Century 21 has covered 128 major cities, with nearly 6,000 stores across the country.

Wang Jiaqi contributed to this story.