Corporate China | Weibo: JD shuffles staff, prepares VNO launch

Rising e-commerce giant JD.com has been all over the blogosphere this past week, trumpeting some major adjustments in its core e-commerce unit as it also prepares to become one of the first companies to challenge China's three major telcos under a new plan to open up that sector. Of course all of this comes against the backdrop of JD.com's own upcoming New York IPO, which could raise up to $1.5 billion (HK$11.6 billion).

If I was being cynical, I might say that much of this buzz is aimed at keeping JD in the headlines as it prepares to list, especially since last week saw early signs that the red-hot New York market for Chinese IPOs may be starting to cool. But in this case, I do think that much of the buzz coming from JD seems genuine and isn't just hype, as the company tries to position itself to pose a major challenge to e-commerce leader Alibaba.

Xu's appointment and comments hint that JD could soon reveal details of a major global expansion, as part of a campaign to generate buzz before its IPO. One of the biggest surprises for me in the news of Xu's appointment was the fact that he came to JD from the e-commerce division of networking equipment giant Huawei. Frankly speaking, I was completely unaware that Huawei had an e-commerce division, and certainly can't imagine that anyone from that unit would be a serious sector player.