JD said it plans to use the IPO proceeds to expand its infrastructure by building new warehouses and establishing more distribution centers. In comparison, Alibaba, which operates a market similar to that of US-based eBay Inc, depends on participating merchants for logistics.
Apparently investors are banking on soaring Internet usage in China, where hundreds of millions of people are poised to become online shoppers, said Lin.
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Online shopping expenditures in China are growing more than 30 percent a year and are set to reach 3.3 trillion yuan by 2015, consultancy Bain & Co has forecast.
"What's exciting about Chinese tech stocks is that [the nation is] a huge market in terms of people and it's an underpenetrated market," Tim Hanson, senior analyst at Motley Fool Asset Management, told the Los Angeles Times.
In April alone, there were four Chinese listings in the US, raising a total of $677 million.
Among those was Jumei International Holding Ltd, an online retailer of beauty products, which floated on the New York Stock Exchange last week and raised $245.1 million.
"Investors are acting more rationally toward Chinese listed firms," said Hong.
"They have learned to distinguish well-run business innovators, such as Baidu Inc, from those that are struggling to make a living," Hong added.