It's full speed ahead for operator of 360buy.com
China.org Business
A woman strolls by the 360buy logo in Beijing. Jingdong Mall, which operates the e-commerce website 360.com, has diversified its services. [China Daily]
Jingdong Mall, a major Chinese online retailer, has been in and out of the spotlight.
With the aggressive expansion of its business portfolio, frequent changes in senior management, and rumored plans for going public, Jingdong enjoys both admiration as a possible Chinese answer to Amazon Inc and doubts about problems with its rapid expansion.
Starting as an online shopping site for electronic products, the company has been making greater efforts in recent years to broaden its service portfolio to fend off competition.
It started to offer e-books this week. Last year, it ventured into online travel services, and it began to offer a wide range of products, from clothes to food, even earlier.
Sales of non-electronic products account for 20 percent of Jingdong Mall's total, said Richard Liu, chief executive officer of Beijing Jingdong Century Trading Co, the operator of online retail website 360buy.com.
Half of the company's sales will come from non-electronic products in the coming three years, Liu said on Monday.
Revenues have risen along with its rapid expansion. Liu estimated earlier that for last year, sales probably reached 28 billion yuan ($4.4 billion) to 30 billion yuan, compared with 10.2 billion yuan a year earlier.
However, not all analysts see this rapid growth as a worry-free development.
"Jingdong has greatly boosted its sales, but it has paid a price - low profit," said Chen Shousong, an analyst with domestic research company Analysys International.
Jingdong's gross margin is probably less than 10 percent, he estimated, as electronic products, which contribute most to its revenues, usually have a much lower margin than products such as clothing and books.
To Jingdong Mall, this is all the more reason to expand into more lucrative sectors. Meanwhile, it must transform itself from a "grassroots start-up" to a full-service e-commerce company, Chen said.
Since last year, the company has brought in new managers, including its chief operating officer from Baidu Inc, its chief technology officer from Oracle Corp and its chief marketing officer from Acer Inc.
"Jingdong Mall had only one vice-president three years ago, but now there are more than 10," Liu said.
Beefing up the management is seen as a prelude to going public, with rumors circulating that the company might apply for a Nasdaq listing as early as March. It delayed an IPO plan late last year.
The South China Morning Post reported on Tuesday that Jingdong Mall planned to raise $2 billion to $3 billion through an IPO. It cited unidentified sources.
Liu, however, said on Monday that the company wouldn't consider going public before 2013.
Some analysts warned that Jingdong could face a cash crunch with its aggressive expansion if it doesn't go public to raise funds, but others said that Jingdong has to stick to its current strategy to remain a leader.
"Jingdong has to race forward. If it falters, it will fall easily, because Tianmao is and will remain big," said Lu Bowang, an e-commerce expert in China.
Tianmao, under e-commerce giant Alibaba Group, accounted for the largest portion of sales in China's B2C market last year, or 35.7 percent.
Jingdong Mall ranked a distant second with 13 percent, according to Analysys International.
Local residents in Zhenjiang took to buying bottled water after finding their tap water had a strong chlorine-like odor. (Photo/Xinhua)
Twenty days after an incident of contaminated tap water, many people in Zhenjiang in eastern China's Jiangsu province continue to buy bottled drinking water despite repeated guarantees from local officials that the city's water is safe, reports Time Weekly magazine in Guangzhou.
On Feb. 3, local residents in Zhenjiang, which is on the Yangtze, complained of a strong smell of chlorine in the city's tap water. The taste remained in their mouths after they brushed the teeth, according to the weekly. Some reported the concentration was so strong that it had killed their pet goldfish.
Local officials said subsequently that the water was safe and the chlorine is used to kill bacteria. The chemical had remained in the water for longer than usual because of the low temperature at the time and would evaporate when boiled, they said.
Rumors on the internet said however that the odor was due to a phenol leak from a South Korean freighter ship. Phenol is a toxic chemical used in the manufacture of synthetic fiber, disinfectants and antiseptics.
The rumors prompted the panic-buying of bottled water and forced local authorities to examine the tap water drawn from the Yangtze.
Their investigations led them to the South Korean ship FC Gloria, which had arrived in Zhenjiang on Feb. 2 from a port in Thailand. It was delivering a batch of phenol to a factory of the Taiwan-based LCY Chemical Corp located on the banks of the Yangtze.
Time Weekly cited anonymous officials as saying that during the delivery, some Phenol was discharged into the river through two flawed valves on the ship.
However, the local authorities didn't disclose their findings until Feb. 7. They won court approval on Feb. 10 to seize the ship in nearby Nantong, also a port on the Yangtze, where the ship was moored as it delivered another batch of chemicals.
The Zhenjiang authorities said they did not reveal their findings immediately due to concern that the captain of the Gloria might obstruct their investigation should he come to know that his ship was the target of a pollution probe.
Time Weekly quoted Wang Lin, a maritime official in the provincial capital Nanjing, as saying that the stretch of the Yangtze in Jiangsu province is lined with chemical factories, which pose a great threat to river and marine life, as well as the health of the people in cities along the river.
He added that there is no way to clean the water, except to wait for the river to clean itself.
A woman strolls by the 360buy logo in Beijing. Jingdong Mall, which operates the e-commerce website 360.com, has diversified its services. [China Daily]
Jingdong Mall, a major Chinese online retailer, has been in and out of the spotlight.
With the aggressive expansion of its business portfolio, frequent changes in senior management, and rumored plans for going public, Jingdong enjoys both admiration as a possible Chinese answer to Amazon Inc and doubts about problems with its rapid expansion.
Starting as an online shopping site for electronic products, the company has been making greater efforts in recent years to broaden its service portfolio to fend off competition.
It started to offer e-books this week. Last year, it ventured into online travel services, and it began to offer a wide range of products, from clothes to food, even earlier.
Sales of non-electronic products account for 20 percent of Jingdong Mall's total, said Richard Liu, chief executive officer of Beijing Jingdong Century Trading Co, the operator of online retail website 360buy.com.
Half of the company's sales will come from non-electronic products in the coming three years, Liu said on Monday.
Revenues have risen along with its rapid expansion. Liu estimated earlier that for last year, sales probably reached 28 billion yuan ($4.4 billion) to 30 billion yuan, compared with 10.2 billion yuan a year earlier.
However, not all analysts see this rapid growth as a worry-free development.
"Jingdong has greatly boosted its sales, but it has paid a price - low profit," said Chen Shousong, an analyst with domestic research company Analysys International.
Jingdong's gross margin is probably less than 10 percent, he estimated, as electronic products, which contribute most to its revenues, usually have a much lower margin than products such as clothing and books.
To Jingdong Mall, this is all the more reason to expand into more lucrative sectors. Meanwhile, it must transform itself from a "grassroots start-up" to a full-service e-commerce company, Chen said.
Since last year, the company has brought in new managers, including its chief operating officer from Baidu Inc, its chief technology officer from Oracle Corp and its chief marketing officer from Acer Inc.
"Jingdong Mall had only one vice-president three years ago, but now there are more than 10," Liu said.
Beefing up the management is seen as a prelude to going public, with rumors circulating that the company might apply for a Nasdaq listing as early as March. It delayed an IPO plan late last year.
The South China Morning Post reported on Tuesday that Jingdong Mall planned to raise $2 billion to $3 billion through an IPO. It cited unidentified sources.
Liu, however, said on Monday that the company wouldn't consider going public before 2013.
Some analysts warned that Jingdong could face a cash crunch with its aggressive expansion if it doesn't go public to raise funds, but others said that Jingdong has to stick to its current strategy to remain a leader.
"Jingdong has to race forward. If it falters, it will fall easily, because Tianmao is and will remain big," said Lu Bowang, an e-commerce expert in China.
Tianmao, under e-commerce giant Alibaba Group, accounted for the largest portion of sales in China's B2C market last year, or 35.7 percent.
Jingdong Mall ranked a distant second with 13 percent, according to Analysys International.
Internet rumors of Yangtze phenol spill proved correct
WantChinaTimes.com
Local residents in Zhenjiang took to buying bottled water after finding their tap water had a strong chlorine-like odor. (Photo/Xinhua)
Twenty days after an incident of contaminated tap water, many people in Zhenjiang in eastern China's Jiangsu province continue to buy bottled drinking water despite repeated guarantees from local officials that the city's water is safe, reports Time Weekly magazine in Guangzhou.
On Feb. 3, local residents in Zhenjiang, which is on the Yangtze, complained of a strong smell of chlorine in the city's tap water. The taste remained in their mouths after they brushed the teeth, according to the weekly. Some reported the concentration was so strong that it had killed their pet goldfish.
Local officials said subsequently that the water was safe and the chlorine is used to kill bacteria. The chemical had remained in the water for longer than usual because of the low temperature at the time and would evaporate when boiled, they said.
Rumors on the internet said however that the odor was due to a phenol leak from a South Korean freighter ship. Phenol is a toxic chemical used in the manufacture of synthetic fiber, disinfectants and antiseptics.
The rumors prompted the panic-buying of bottled water and forced local authorities to examine the tap water drawn from the Yangtze.
Their investigations led them to the South Korean ship FC Gloria, which had arrived in Zhenjiang on Feb. 2 from a port in Thailand. It was delivering a batch of phenol to a factory of the Taiwan-based LCY Chemical Corp located on the banks of the Yangtze.
Time Weekly cited anonymous officials as saying that during the delivery, some Phenol was discharged into the river through two flawed valves on the ship.
However, the local authorities didn't disclose their findings until Feb. 7. They won court approval on Feb. 10 to seize the ship in nearby Nantong, also a port on the Yangtze, where the ship was moored as it delivered another batch of chemicals.
The Zhenjiang authorities said they did not reveal their findings immediately due to concern that the captain of the Gloria might obstruct their investigation should he come to know that his ship was the target of a pollution probe.
Time Weekly quoted Wang Lin, a maritime official in the provincial capital Nanjing, as saying that the stretch of the Yangtze in Jiangsu province is lined with chemical factories, which pose a great threat to river and marine life, as well as the health of the people in cities along the river.
He added that there is no way to clean the water, except to wait for the river to clean itself.
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