The US-based retailer Wal-Mart Stores Inc and five other companies have agreed to invest more than $500 million in 360buy.com, China's biggest business-to-customer (B2C) website, the Chinese company said, The New York Times reported Monday.
Richard Liu, 360buy.com's chairman and chief executive officer announced the investment announced the investment on his Chinese microblog last week. Li Jing, 360buy's spokeswoman, confirmed on Monday that Wal-Mart was one of the investors that had pledged a combined $500 million to back the Beijing-based company.
Li declined to disclose the value of the investment by Wal-Mart. She said a formal announcement with more details could be made within weeks.
Kevin Gardner, a spokesman for Wal-Mart, which is based in Bentonville, Ark, said in an e-mail Saturday that the retailer had made no announcement and did not comment on rumors or speculation.
But a big investment in online retailing would not be unusual. Many global retailers, including Gap, are expanding aggressively in China and beginning online selling business. Wal-Mart operates more than 200 stores in China.
The 360buy deal seems likely to feed excitement about China's fast-growing Internet start-ups, the news paper said.
A few weeks ago, one of China's biggest online video sites, Youku.com, raised more than $200 million in an initial public offering in the United States. Then, in December, its shares raced up in one of the hottest debuts in years on the Nasdaq.
China is already home to some of the world's most valuable Internet companies, like Alibaba, Baidu and Tencent. The country also has the most Internet users, about 420 million, according to the latest government survey.
As a start-up, 360buy has grown along with online commerce in China.
This year, the company said it expected to sell about $1.5 billion worth of goods, up from $200 million in 2008. Analysts say e-commerce is booming in China, with many shoppers ordering goods online and having them delivered quickly, and cheaply, sometimes by local services that use bicycles.
Su Huiyan, an analyst at i-Research, a firm in Shanghai that tracks online developments, said online commerce in China could reach $75 billion in 2010, up from $8.5 billion in 2007.
China's online marketplace is dominated by Taobao.com, a subsidiary of the Internet giant Alibaba. But Taobao is really an online bazaar that matches buyers and sellers and creates a platform for companies and individuals to sell their goods.
Analysts say 360buy manages its own goods, mostly consumer electronics.
