Amazon China

Amazon China (Chinese: 亚马逊中国), formerly known as Joyo.com (Chinese: 卓越网), is an online shopping website.[1] Joyo.com was founded in early 2000 by the Chinese entrepreneur Lei Jun in Beijing, China. The company primarily sold books and other media goods, shipping to customers nationwide. Joyo.com was renamed to “Amazon China” when sold to Amazon Inc in 2004 for US$75 Million.[1] Amazon China closed its domestic business in China in June 2019,[2] offering only products from sellers located overseas.[3]

History

Origin

Joyo.com was founded by

E-commerce in China

E-commerce is very popular in China and is the home of the world's largest market for e-commerce, responsible for approximately 50% of online purchases.[16] China is the world's largest digital community with approximately 830 million internet users per 2018.[17] China is among the world's largest exporters of commercial goods, and sold about five times as much as Japan in 2016. The US is especially important for Chinese manufacturers as the number of China-based sellers is growing on Amazon.[18] Today, Alibaba-owned companies TaoBao and Tmall together make up approximately 55% of the Chinese e-commerce market and JD.com about 25%.[16] Amazon and Alibaba are the world's two largest e-commerce and cloud computing companies, and both are investing intensely in AI and cloud infrastructure. Amazon is able to leverage its logistics network through Amazon Web Services (AWS) while Alibaba and its e-commerce sites are repositioning themselves as the leaders in China's AI platform.[19] With a market cap of over two trillion U.S. dollars, Amazon ranks first among the leading large-cap e-commerce companies worldwide, ahead of Alibaba and Shopify. As of February 17, 2026, Alibaba's market cap was 370 billion U.S. dollars.[20]

Seller feedback is highly valued on many Chinese e-commerce sites, and many offer rebates or gifts in exchange for comments or ratings. The concept is named "Rebate For Feedback" (RFF) and was founded by economist Li Lingfang.[21] Taobao launched a system where buyers were able to receive ”refund points” that could be collected and used as a coupon with another purchase.[22]

Counterfeit products

Counterfeit products are common in China, with mainland China responsible for about 63.2% of the world's production of fake goods. Hong Kong ranks as the world's second largest producer, accounting for approximately 27% of counterfeit goods globally. Amazon admitted in 2019 to having a significant problem with vendors selling counterfeit products, most of which were located in mainland China. Although Amazon is legally not responsible for counterfeit products sold through third-party sellers on its platform, it has faced criticism for insufficient action against the issue. In 2018, Amazon introduced two programs—Transparency and Project Zero—aimed at eliminating counterfeit products on its site.

Singles Day Shopping Festival

In 2009,[23] Alibaba and JD.com released a Global Shopping Festival held on the 11th of November, also known as Singles Day in China.[24] Singles Day was supposedly started in the 1990s by a group of university students in China who bought themselves gifts to oppose Valentines Day.[25] November 11 was later popularized and promoted by e-commerce retailers like Alibaba as a day to celebrate the lonely ones by buying gifts for themselves.

Competition

In the early 2000s, DangDang was considered the largest competitor to Joyo.com.[12] They were especially similar, as they both focused on selling books as their main business and offered products large discounts on the same products. There was an increase in number of Chinese e-commerce business in the early 2000. These companies grew rapidly along with the rising popularity for online shopping, especially among younger consumers.[29] The competition for consumers rose and Alibaba became the largest and most popular in China after a few years in the market.[15]

Amazon.cn offered express delivery for the major Chinese cities, like Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou,[6] but their competitors usually offered faster delivery to a cheaper price or free, regardless of city.[30] Amazon.cn also had a minimum spend amount for their Chinese customers for all purchases on their website, which varied from 59 yuan to 200 yuan based on item. Amazon Inc. minimum spend policy also applies in other countries, but come with free national express delivery as well.[31]

After the acquisition in 2004, were Amazons biggest competitors in China, Dangdang, Taobao, Pinduoduo, Alibaba, Tmall and JD.com.[32] They are similar in terms of business model and variety of products being sold. In comparison to Alibaba and DangDang, did Amazon not have the same intense marketing approach as their competitors, that often had big sales promotions and campaigns during Chinese holidays.[33]

Alibaba

Chinese e-commerce site Alibaba is today considered to be the largest e-commerce retailer in China based on yearly revenue sales.[34] Alibaba has approximately 654 million users and has had a steeper growing rate than Amazon[16] Alibaba was also established in 1999, by founder Jack Ma with a team of 17 friends in Hangzhou, China.[35] Due to their similarities, is Alibaba often referred to as the "Chinese Amazon" despite being two separate companies with little connection to each other. Alibaba and Amazon are similar in products sold and popularity. The largest differences deal with their business model as Amazon sells own products, while Alibaba operates a platform that connects sellers and customers and do not own any inventory themselves.[32] Alibaba has several subsidiaries and operates within numerous markets. They primarily focus on e-commerce, but also operate within the technological market. Alibaba has its own payment platform named Alipay, which is used both online and in stores worldwide.

url	https://www.amazon.cn
commercial	Yes
type	Online shopping
language	Chinese
owner	Amazon (2004–present)
launch date	1999
current status	active

History

Origin

Acquisition

Sales revenues

E-commerce in China

Counterfeit products

Singles Day Shopping Festival

Competition

Alibaba

External links

References

Termination