With the internet heavy hitters of China and America vying for their share of India's digital market, the former is making strides through a strategy focused on investment in and partnership with local companies over acquisition.
Together with SoftBank and Naspers, Chinese companies own more than 40% of each of India's four most-valued online players.
When online grocer Bigbasket went to market in early 2017 to raise capital just a year after securing $150 million, the list of suitors was very different.
In March 2016, it had closed funding from US - and Middle East-based financial investors including Sands Capital, IFC and Abraaj Capital.
This time, the interested ones were major corporations - Chinese strategic investors Tencent, conglomerate Fosun, ecommerce giant Alibaba along with Paytm Mall, and, of course, US-based Amazon.
In fact, Amazon had engaged with Bigbasket for an acquisition on multiple occasions since late 2015 but the talks didn't progress because of valuation and deal structuring issues.