Most of the dotcoms which tried to tap China's book market disappeared within a year of the Internet fever collapsing, according to one of the survivors.
'In its heyday, there were over 300 dotcoms that claimed to provide online bookstore business. In reality only 60 to 70 of them actually operated,' Dangdang.com co-president and co-founder Peggy Yu said.
'After a year, only two still operate - German bookseller Bertelsmann's BOL China and us.'
Dotcom executives' inexperience in business operations, and the mainland's ill-prepared e-commerce infrastructure were key reasons for the failure of most of the online booksellers, according to Ms Yu, who heads the 'biggest Chinese-language online bookstore in China'.
'Some of the dotcom executives just had a concept and didn't have any experience in marketing or running a business. They spent lots of money on advertising without a clear message.'
After the Internet fever collapse, those who failed to generate revenue to back up their dotcom concepts were unable to find new funding and were forced out of the market.