SHANGHAI — Wal-Mart and five other companies have agreed to invest $500 million in 360buy.com, one of China’s fastest-growing online retailers, according to the Internet company.
Liu Qiangdong, the founder and chairman of the Beijing-based company, made the announcement on his Chinese Twitter-style microblog last week. On Monday, a spokeswoman for 360buy.com, Li Jing, confirmed that Wal-Mart was one of the new investors that pledged a combined $500 million to back the privately owned company.
Ms. Li declined to say the size of the investment by Wal-Mart, the world’s leading retailer. She said a formal announcement with more details could be made within weeks.
Kevin Gardner, a spokesman for Wal-Mart, which is based in Arkansas, said in an e-mail Saturday that the company 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 are expanding aggressively in China and beginning to sell online here, including Gap. Wal-Mart already operates more than 200 stores in the country.
The 360buy.com announcement seems likely to fuel more excitement about China’s fast-growing Internet start-ups. Just a few weeks ago, one of China’s biggest online video sites, Youku.com, raised more than $200 million in a U.S. initial public offering, and then earlier this month saw its shares race up in one of the hottest debuts in years on the Nasdaq Stock Market.
China is already home to some of the world’s most valuable Internet companies, like Alibaba, Baidu and Tencent. This country also has the largest number of Internet users, about 420 million, according to the latest government survey.
As a start-up, 360buy.com has blossomed along with online commerce in China. This year, the company said it expected to sell about $1.5 billion worth of goods online, up from about $200 million in 2008.
Analysts say e-commerce is growing at an explosive pace in China, with many shoppers ordering goods online and having them delivered instantly, and cheaply, sometimes by local delivery services that use bicycles.
Su Huiyan, an analyst at i-Research, a Shanghai-based firm that tracks Web developments, said online commerce in China could reach $75 billion in 2010, up from about $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 shopping bazaar that matches buyers and sellers and creates a platform for companies and individuals to sell their goods.
Analysts say 360buy.com manages its own goods, mostly consumer electronics. The company is an online retailer that more closely resembles Amazon.com.
Mr. Liu, the 36-year-old founder of 360buy.com, has told Chinese newspapers that he started out selling software from a small booth and then began to open chain stores in various cities. In 2004, however, he started selling goods online at 360buy.com, known in Chinese as the Jingdong Shopping Mall.
Among the investors in 360buy.com, according to the company, are several venture capital funds, including Bull Capital and Capital Today, as well as Tiger Global Management, the hedge fund founded by Chase Coleman.
Bao Beibei contributed research.
