Wal-Mart and five other companies have agreed to invest USD500m in 360buy.com, a fast-growing online retailer in China, the Chinese company said. A spokeswoman for 360buy, Li Jing declined to divulge the value of the investment by Wal-Mart. Kevin Gardner, a spokesman for Wal-Mart, which is based in Bentonville, Ark., said that the retailer had made no announcement and did not comment on rumours or speculation.

 

 

 

 

Dow Electronic Materials, a business unit of The Dow Chemical Company, has broken ground on its new China manufacturing facility in Zhangjiagang, Jiangsu Province. It will meet the growing demand for materials for printed circuit board, electronic and industrial finishing, and photovoltaic markets in Asia. Start-up is planned for late 2011. In addition to the location in Zhangjiagang, Dow Electronic Materials has manufacturing facilities to serve the printed circuit board, electronic and industrial finishing, and photovoltaic markets in Dongguan, Guangdong Province.

 

 

 

 

Capitaland, one of Asia's largest real estate developers, has announced a plan to set up a comprehensive commercial project in Shanghai's Changning District. The new Raffles City, the second in Shanghai, will be built on 60,000 sq. m close to Zhongshan Park with a total investment of Rmb9.6bn (USD1.45bn). The first phase of the project is expected to be completed by 2015. The company also plans to set up an online platform under the Raffles City brand in 2011 to attract merchants and consumers.

 

 

 

 

Tsinghua University and Mozilla China have jointly developed a new Internet browser product that is specially designed for IPv6. Based on the core of Firefox, the widely-used browser by Mozilla, the new browser product, with the help of IPv6 tunnel technologies, enables smooth access to some IPv6, Facebook, and Google services, which are usually unstable. Facebook, at the present moment, is blocked in most areas of China. At present, this browser mainly targets the campus network of Tsinghua University with initial V1.0.6 version. It also has a "green download" edition which is about 16MB.

 

 

 

 

Alibaba.com and Taobao.com, the two subsidiaries of the Chinese e-commerce group Alibaba, jointly announced plans to launch a new Internet shopping website under the domain name of Lp.taobao.com. The new website, which will reportedly be launched on 6 January, 2011, is a comprehensive shopping website jointly developed by Alibaba.com and Taobao.com. Focusing on the marketing of products, it will recommend cheap and quality goods to buyers of Taobao.com while nurturing the brands of its sellers. Like offline department stores and large supermarkets, the new website will serve consumers with a unified image and service standards.

 

 

 

 

French giant oil company Total, which plans to spend more in 2011 to bolster its market share, is looking to China to improve businesses in Asia. The company intends to participate in the construction of a refinery in China, and also to expand its distribution network in the country, where it currently has two JVs with Sinochem and its own network, according to Michel Benezit, general director of Total's refining and marketing branch.