US-based etail giant Amazon.com has launched a Japanese site - its
fourth international effort following sites in France, Germany and the
UK.
The launch, which comes several months ahead of schedule, was rolled out
early in time for the holidays.
The company said it hoped launching the site early would pay off as the
Gartner Group recently predicted that Japanese consumers would spend
USdollars 1.3 billion online during the season.
Amazon hopes to take USdollars 1 billion in total sales this holiday
season.
The move comes as other US companies are also looking to target Japanese
online shoppers.
Anderson Consulting had earlier said ecommerce in Japan grew at a rate
of 400 per cent from 1998 to 1999, leading US etailers to anticipate the
type of hype which marked America's early days of ecommerce.
The site is to be backed by an office in Tokyo.
The company is expected to face competition from Japan's convenience
store 7-Eleven Japan, which also launched an online bookstore.
Amazon is offering free delivery for the rest of the year as a special
promotion.
It is unclear how Amazon will work through Japanese publishing
regulations to offer discounts on Japanese language books on its
site.
The company is expected to continue to discount English-language books
on its site by up to 30 per cent.
Separately, Commercial Press Cyberbooks (CPC) is seeking a licence in
mainland China to tap its lucrative Internet bookstore market.
Through promotions in Hong Kong and other overseas markets, the website
CP1897.com had seen a surge in sales over the past six months.
CPC is a joint venture between Sunevision Holdings and Commercial
Press.
The site offers more than 200,000 Chinese-language titles and 50,000
English-language titles.
