Chinese online game and messaging company, Tencent Holdings Ltd. has acquired a 16% stake in ELong Inc., an online travel service provider in China for $84.4 million. The deal was announced by the Tencent Holdings on Friday.

After the accomplishment of the deal, Tencent will become the second largest shareholder of ELong. Expedia Inc. is the biggest stake holder in ELong and the company has paid $41.2 million to increase its stake in Elong to 56%.

ELong is China’s second-biggest online travel company behind Ctrip. com International Ltd. the company allows the users book 19,000 hotels in 700 cities in China and also offers air ticket service.

The new deal is a part of Tenecent’s plan to expand outside its core businesses of online games and messaging.

Chief Executive Officer of Tencent Holdings Ltd., Ma Huateng said that the new deal will enable the company to provide more applications and services for the company’s more than 300 million users beyond online games, social networking, and Internet shopping.

The shares of Tencent Holdings Ltd. dropped 2% in Hong Kong trading to HK$214.80 in the early trading whereas the shares of ELong increased 13% to $16.96 in U. S. trading.