Baidu and JD.com are reportedly joining a host of other large Chinese startups investing nearly $12 billion in China Unicom, one of two big mobile operators in China.

According to Reuters. the two firms join Alibaba, Tencent and others in the financing, which is designed to add resources to the previously state-owned mobile firm. All the parties declined comment to Reuters or did not respond to requests for comment, as did a representative of the Chinese government unit that oversees state-owned companies.

Why it matters: Mobile is the driving force for China's e-commerce and Internet companies; therefore it's in their collective interest to have strong competition and investment in mobile networks.