Two competing domestic ventures that help to replicate Amazon's success also made news this past week. Shanghai Book City, China's largest brick and mortar bookstore, was profiled in a South China Morning story last Friday. The bookstore began selling online on January 1st, with revenues doubling from 5,000 RMB (US$620) the first month to 10,000 RMB in March. It appears, Shanghai store will have competition from up north. Yinwen Book Import and Export Company, a state-owned company in Beijing, announced it will be opening China's largest online bookstore in a joint venture with Intermost Corporation. Intermost will design and manage the online bookstore while Yinwen contributes its 200,000 square foot warehouse and associations with retail book selling chain New China Book Stores. The Yinwen bookstore claims and inventory of 120,000 titles, compared to the 160,000 title inventory at Shanghai Book City.

In other news, eight leading Chinese web sites announced the formation of a new industry group for content providers. Sohu, Sina, Chinabyte, Netease, China Wide Web, Goyoyo, Shanghai Online and Information Highway Tech jointly signed an agreement in Beijing this past week to form the China ICP United Development High-Profile Conference. The group hopes to improve the atmosphere for web content businesses in China in the face of increased foreign competition.