Sequoia Capital upbeat about O2O future in China

China is a better market for online-to-offline (O2O) startups, the hottest e-commerce trend, than the United States, said a famous venture capitalist.

China is more densely populated. Chinese cities having a population of more than 1 million outnumber the same-sized US cities, said Shen Nanpeng, managing partner and co-founder at venture capital firm Sequoia Capital China on Thursday.

Shen joined the fleet of big-name guests such as Alibaba's Jack Ma, Baidu's Robin Li, and Tencent's Ma Huateng at the three-day World Internet Conference from Dec 16 to Dec 18 in Wuzhen, a river town in East China.

The key to O2O, a buzzword in China's retailing industry, is to find customers online and bring them to real-world stores. Though still being debatable, the idea is expected to have the potential to revolutionize retailing as the B2C (business-to-customer) did years ago.

China has already shown a lively e-commerce landscape. The Singles Day shopping bonanza on Nov 11, or China's online Black Friday, has become the largest online shopping event in the world. Alibaba's Tmall reported record-breaking sales at 91.2 million yuan ($14.19 billion).