China’s e-commerce market has been seeing significant growth lately, which became the motive behind Walmart’s and 5 other investors’ $500 million investment in the e-commerce consumer electronics seller, 360buy.com. The site has a similar business model to that of Amazon, as it’s a direct competitor of Alibaba Group’s Taobao, the leader in the Chinese e-commerce market.

“Analysts expect Taobao’s competitors to gain strength as China’s e-commerce market continues to grow rapidly. China had 420 million Internet users as of June, more than any other nation, and a growing share of them are turning to the Web for shopping. The online retail market is expected to grow an average of 27% a year, to $159.4 billion in 2015, from $48.8 billion this year, according to Forrester Research Inc.”

This rapid growth is something WalMart (with 198 existing China outlets) and others intend to tap. While Taobao may be the biggest player in this market, its revenue was only $250 million last year compared to 360buy’s 4 billion yuan, or about $603M. However, maintaining this figure as well as its prospected 2011 $1BN growth requires some heavy investment, something WalMart evidently realizes. With 50K employees in China and counting, it’s no surprise the most successful retailer on the globe is looking to expand its domain within the enormous Chinese e-commerce market.

As we covered here, Chinese e-commerce is extending to more and more segments, including luxury brand shopping. Fashion giants such as Emporio Armani have all opened e-shops in this burgeoning industry. China is even expected to surpass Japan, the current leader in luxury brand shopping.