China's online arms race shows no sign of cooling

epa05020467 A consumer views online shopping websites at a store of JD.com online shopping website in an university in Beijing city, China, 11 November 2015. Chinese internet giant Alibaba made 5 billion dollars in the first 90 minutes of the country's 'Singles Day' online shopping binge on 11 November, defying fears of an economic slowdown in the world's second-largest economy. Alibaba rival and China's largest online direct sales company, JD.com, said on 11 November that its website had clocked up 10 million orders by 10 am (0200 GMT), which is up 180 per cent from the site's total number of orders on Singles Day last year. EPA/WU HONG

HONG KONG: The online arms race in China continues. Local-deals specialist Meituan-Dianping has just raised more than US$3.3bil (RM14.45bil). 

That's a huge sum for a startup, eclipsing the US$2.1bil (RM9.19bil) that Uber, the world's most valuable venture capital-backed outfit, is reportedly seeking.