Tencent Holdings Ltd, China's largest Internet company by market capitalization, has agreed to buy a 15 percent stake

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in online real estate services provider Leju Holdings Ltd for $180 million, as it steps up efforts to battle Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, another Internet heavyweight in China, for the country's online-to-offline business.

The transaction is expected to close by the end of this month. Tencent will also subscribe additional shares in Leju's proposed initial public offering to maintain its 15 percent equity interest on a fully diluted basis, the company said in a joint statement issued on Friday with the New York Stock Exchange-listed E-House, the owner of Leju.

"Tencent's investment in Leju demonstrates its recognition of Leju's success in O2O real estate e-commerce. We strongly believe in the opportunities in this vast and growing market," said Xin Zhou, E-House's co-chairman and chief executive officer.

Xin said that by leveraging Tencent's powerful mobile chatting app WeChat, they will continue their push to establish a leading mobile-based, real estate e-commerce platform. "We also look forward to deepening and widening our strategic cooperation with Tencent in the coming years," he said.

According to the statement, Tencent will enable Leju to better connect with WeChat's more than 600 million registered users through the app's official accounts and expand WeChat's integrated payment solution to Leju's user base.