Amazon's Competition Heats Up in China

When it comes to online retail in China, Amazon is a distant runner up to the bevy of ecommerce sites owned by Alibaba, and now the two will be competing even more fiercely in smartphones.

On Sunday Alibaba announced a $590 million investment in Chinese phone-maker Meizu. The terms of the deal were not disclosed (other than that it was a minority investment), but the press release does hint that the two companies "will collaborate at both strategic and business levels to achieve a deeper integration of Meizu's hardware and Alibaba Group's mobile operating system"