If JD.com is China’s Amazon, buy the shares when they float this month. Lots of them.

In one sense, it is. Unlike Alibaba, the Chinese internet retailer does not just connect buyers and sellers. That would make it China’s eBay. JD.com owns its inventory and its distribution infrastructure. It is in a low margin, capitally intensive business – Amazon’s business, in short. The investment is significant. The company added 10,000 workers in distribution and customer service between December and March, for a total of more than 40,000. Order fulfilment costs eat up more than half of gross profits.

Further, JD has turned – for one year, at least – Amazon’s trick of generating cash when it is not making accounting profits. It had a $96m operating loss last year and generated $376m in free cash flow. The method will be familiar to Amazon watchers: get paid by your customers faster than you pay your suppliers. Faster growth in accounts payable than in accounts receivable accounted for almost $500m in cash flow last year.