JD.com Races ahead of Alibaba with Plans for Public Listing

(Beijing) – A while back, Liu Qiangdong, the CEO of JD.com Inc., said his company would not go public before 2015. Then on January 30, the large e-retailer known in Chinese as Jingdong filed an application for an initial public offering with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Established in 2004, JD.com is the country's leading business-to-consumer (B2C) company by number of accounts. The firm has become the e-grocer of choice for many people, who use it to buy food, electronics and other goods, then take usually free delivery at home the next day.