Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
e-commerce site in Russia, was founded and is led by a Swiss citizen, Bernard
Lukey; it sells books, software, electronic games, and digital music, and receives
more than 120,000 unique hits per day (Wilsdon
2007
). Likewise, Books.Ru, the
Russian equivalent of Amazon.com, has done well since it began in 1996. Russian
e-banking, however, is still in its infancy: in 2005, only 5 % offered on-line
services (Doern and Fey
2006
). However, all such transactions are geographically
limited, as Moscow and St. Petersburg combined account for 60 % of the coun-
try's on-line retail exchanges.
4.7.4 East Asia
China's e-commerce sector is growing even more rapidly than its flourishing
economy. China's B2B economy is still in its infancy (Zhao et al.
2008
), but
growing rapidly. For example, B2B ties have facilitated collaborative relationships
among Chinese manufacturing firms, generating great efficiencies and cost savings
in the process (Wu et al.
2011
). Chinese banks have gradually upgraded to allow
electronic funds transfer systems. However, as Martinsons (
2008
, p. 3) points out,
''e-commerce in China has been stymied by inefficient telecommunications,
inconvenient payment mechanisms, poor quality products, unreliable delivery, and
fundamental concerns about security and trust due to a poor legal/regulatory
system,'' all of which encourage guanxi and informal ties. Vague and irregularly
enforced laws concerning contracts and intellectual property contribute to this
dilemma. Moreover, the transparency of e-commerce challenges the monopoly
over information held by corrupt, well-connected Communist Party members. The
rapidly increasing number of internet users in China has also generated a large
online shopping base, although limited use of credit cards (less than 5 % of the
population) dampens its growth. In 2011, China had 193 million on-line shoppers,
the largest such population in the world. However, Chinese shoppers tend to value
the social dimensions of shopping more than do their Western counterparts
(Efendioglu and Yip
2004
), and e-commerce can never provide this aspect, and
indeed, mitigates against it by making transactions less personal. Whereas 70 % of
American netizens have used the internet for shopping, only 20 % of Chinese users
have done so (Richards and Shen
2006
). Lacking the right political connections,
eBay closed shop in China in 2006 (Bradsher
2006
). Nonetheless, a large number
of netizens have even been branded as having an ''online shopping addiction'' as a
result of the growth of online shopping; according to Sina.com, Chinese
consumers with Internet access spend an average of RMB 10,000 online annually.
On-line retailers such as Beijing-based 8848.net (named after the metric height of
Mt. Everest) and Shanghai-based Mecox Lane began in 1999, selling books,
hardware, and small appliances and more recently large online (only) retailers such
as 360 buy have flourished in this environment (Powell
2011
).
In Japan, e-commerce has not expanded as much as one might expect given its
relative wealth and the size of its economy. As Aoyama and Schwarz (
2004
,
