The Economist: Dangdang.com is China's Amazon.com: "The Economist: Dangdang.com is China's Amazon.com
Key points:
Despite an 86% literacy rate (not far short of America's 99%) and five times America's population, China has only 77,000 or so bookstores
Ms Yu monitors Amazon for new ideas, which she then pinches--most recently, multiple delivery addresses and customer wish-lists--and encourages her 140 employees to order from the American firm's website to get hints for customising her own
The biggest obstacle to buying books online in China is not price, as in America, but a lack of availability and trust
The firm now claims 800,000 unique visitors and takes up to 4,000 orders a day, more than half these days for DVDs and CDs "