中國網(wǎng)站品牌欄目（頻道）
Robin Li, founder and chief executive of the search engine company Baidu and the richest man on the Chinese mainland, has invested in 360buy.com, a company that started by mainly selling computers, communication and electronics over the Internet.
When measured by its market share, 360buy.com is the biggest website selling directly to consumers in China.
Li is the latest in a series of famous investors who have wanted to own part of 360buy.com, a company valued at about $10 billion at the end of last month.
Among the others are the Walton family, which controls Wal-Mart Stores, and Digital Sky Technologies, the Russia-based Internet investment group that owns stakes in Facebook and Groupon. Both took part in 360buy.com's third round of financing, in which it raised $1.5 billion.
"Robin Li invested in us last year, taking a stake of less than 1 percent," Richard Liu, chairman and chief executive of 360buy.com, said at a news briefing in Beijing on Tuesday. The announcement surprised many, especially since Liu has complained about Baidu's decision to sell to competitors the brand name "Jingdong," the Chinese name for 360buy.com.
Liu even hinted in his micro blog in April that 360buy.com might cease advertising on Baidu because of what he deemed to be the company's unethical behavior.
Founded in 1998, 360buy.com has seen its annual revenue increase by more than 200 percent in the past six years. It brought in annual revenue of 10.2 billion yuan ($1.6 billion) in 2010, and that figure is expected to climb to between 24 billion and 26 billion yuan this year.
In 2010, the company grabbed 32.5 percent of the Chinese market for goods sold directly to customers over the Internet.
It's followed by Joyo.com and the New York Stock Exchange-listed Dangdang.com, similar websites that each have 9.2 percent of that market, according to the consulting firm iResearch.
The listing excluded Taobao.com, the largest online retail site in China measured by sales, which runs a website that sells directly to consumers and also allows consumers to sell to one another.
Taobao's direct sales to consumers have about three times the value of those made through 360buy.com to consumers, said Chen Shousong, an analyst at Analysys International.
"The competition between Taobao.com and 360buy.com is becoming increasingly intense," he said.
360buy.com plans to list in the United States no later than 2012, and hopes to raise $2 billion from the capital markets, according to Liu.
（中國日報網(wǎng)英語點津 Helen 編輯）
About the broadcaster:
Nelly Min is an editor at China Daily with more than 10 years of experience as a newspaper editor and photographer. She has worked at major newspapers in the U.S., including the Los Angeles Times and the Detroit Free Press. She is also fluent in Korean.
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