BEIJING: China's former richest man Wang Jianlin once bet Alibaba founder Jack Ma 100mil yuan (RM53.51mil) that online purchases in the country would not eclipse bricks-and-mortar buys in the next decade.
But while Wang says he laid the wager "for fun" two years ago, the billionaires' business interests are increasingly converging as Chinese consumers' spending habits undergo a seismic shift — and much larger sums are at stake.
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