Chinese E-commerce Coming to SenseThe plummeting hi-tech NASDAQ has quelled the craze among Chinese e-commerce companies, who gathered early this month in Shanghai to seek a way of development.The companies have changed their focus to meet customers' demands in e-commerce service, instead of the previous indulgence in getting funds through being listed. "This shows that China's e-commerce sector is undergoing a seemingly inconspicuous but actually drastic change," said Yang Weidong, general secretary of Chinese Association of E-commerce. The country was connected to the Internet in 1994. Vigorous development seen in the following years sent thousands ambitious young Chinese to start up their websites, in hopes of becoming wealthy over night. On average over 100 websites came into being in the first seven months last year. The successive plunges on the NASDAQ shattered their fantasies. "E-commerce is not a simple matter of only setting up websites. It is more important to offer practical solution packages to help customers lower production costs and increase economic efficiency, " Chen Chong, a senior official from the Ministry of Information Industry, said. China's rudimentary e-commerce service is far behind the developed countries, especially the United States. The country's 15,000 e-commerce service websites have had to search new means of subsistence, expanding service scopes or providing individualistic and specialized services. Traditional sectors like securities firms, financial institutions and credit card-issuing centers began to try e-commerce and showed a strong competitive edge to their established advantages in logistics, delivery, management expertise and funds. Analysts said domestic competition in this sector will get fiercer, and even fiercer when China enters the World Trade Organization. |
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