The group – 360buy – that runs Jingdong Mall, China’s second-largest online retailer by transaction value, is preparing to ramp up acquisitions, adding to speculation about its plans to raise at least $1bn via a US listing.
“We will do a lot of acquisitions in the second half of 2012,” Richard Liu, 360buy’s founder and chief executive, told the Financial Times in his first interview with foreign media. “The Chinese ecommerce sector has already entered its shakeout phase, and that phase will be over by the end of next year. We will take advantage of it.”
The moves are likely to intensify competition with Alibaba, which dominates China’s ecommerce market but is in the middle of a restructuring.