Silent contest between JD.com and Alibaba

Staff members walk out of Alibaba's office in Hangzhou, East China's Zhejiang province, on Nov 6, 2015. [Photo/VCG]

This year's "6.18 mid-year promotion" is a real test for China's retail industry.

Alibaba has over 400 million active consumers and over 10 million businesses with over 10 billion deals everyday. Finding ways to use technology to improve services for customers is the focus of their work.

Jack Ma, CEO of Alibaba, is committed to establishing a trading platform and e-commerce ecosystem, a business model with relatively low risk.

However, Liu Qiangdong, CEO of JD.com, uses a more risky business model by establishing their own logistics, warehouses and brands.

By the end of September last year, the number of staff members at JD.com was 2.5 times more than Alibaba, with 115,811 and 46,689 respectively.