Liu Qiangdong, CEO of Chinese online retailer 360buy.com, said Sunday that the company has received the funds for its latest round of financing, making it cash-rich for future platform-building.
360buy.com raised more than $700 million in its fourth round of financing, from Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan and Kingdom Holdings Company, according to the company.
The funds will be used for company operations, developing new businesses and building a logistics system, the company said Saturday.
Liu said in an e-mail to staff members that the money has been received, increasing cash reserves to more than 15 billion yuan ($2.4 billion), which means the company does not need to worry about its short-term financial performance and can undertake long-term investments.
"360buy.com wants to be a platform which is totally different from Alibaba," read the e-mail.
Liu said 360buy has created open Web, logistics and information systems and is currently working on a financial platform.
"All the platforms the company has created will be open to the public, forming a huge platform network," he said.
The $700 million financing will help 360buy to relieve its cash flow and develop new businesses, Lu Zhenwang, founder of Shanghai Wanqing Commerce Consulting Company, said Sunday.
Online platforms are the key to the e-commerce wars, he said.
Major e-commerce firms that have opened their platforms include Alibaba, 360buy, suning.com and Amazon.
360buy lags behind Alibaba - which has well-established data, logistics and financial systems - but still has opportunities to catch up, Lu said.
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