Dwindling discounts threaten China's online consumer paradise

Hong Kong

FOR the past year, Li Weiling has been living large on the cheap in Beijing, courtesy of deep-pocketed investors from around the world. The 30-year-old advertising professional has been swinging like a sultan on a salary of just 6,000 yuan (S$1,214) a month: summoning chauffeured cars during the rush hour and getting lunch delivered to her doorstep, all while snapping up cheap movie tickets and just about anything else under the sun.

It's the Chinese dream, underwritten by the record sums that titans of the Internet, sovereign wealth funds and global investors funnelled into the burgeoning on-demand economy. And it's probably too good to last.

Startups backed by Baidu Inc, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd and Tencent Holdings Ltd once offered plentiful and steep discounts on everything from on-demand massages to …