BUSINESS OF MY OWN: Bi Sheng fulfilled his dream of having his own business at the age of 34 through building a toy dreamland online for both kids and adults (COURTESY OF LETAO.COM)

Bi Sheng, the former marketing director of China's popular search engine Baidu.com, had been looking for a brilliant business idea for a while before last June when he launched Letao.com, an e-commerce website that sells only quality brand-name toys.

The Internet veteran resigned from Baidu in July 2005 just before the company's initial public offering on the Nasdaq market. At that time, Bi, then barely over 30, thought it was time for him to start a business of his own. After two unsuccessful angel investments in a software programming and a medical technology business, Bi became the CEO of Zhanzuo.com, a college student community website requiring real-name registration. Shortly afterward, he started Letao.com.

As a fan of Transformers, the line of toy robots produced by the American toy manufacturer Hasbro Inc., and a would-be father, Bi noticed that youngsters in China hardly had access to quality toys that were safe, fun and educational, despite the country's reputation as the world's largest toy producer and exporter. He decided to run a business-to-customer (B2C) platform selling toys made in South Korea, the United States, Germany, Japan and Hong Kong in early 2008.

"The B2C toy business is backed by a market worth 30 billion yuan ($4.4 billion) in China, but none of the existing B2C platforms pledged ultimate quality and safety for customers," Bi said. "And that is our niche."

Bi's toy dreamland is now venture-funded and has received nearly $10 million through two rounds of fundraising. The second round was just completed before the U.S. subprime mortgage crisis evolved into worldwide turmoil. Calling the venture a "luxurious business startup," Bi said he wants to slow down the company's pace of development, spend more time collecting customer feedback and strive to offer customers more quality toys at cheaper prices.

Bi thought he had struck gold when he secured a partnership with the Walt Disney Co. to sell licensed Disney toys and dolls and was able to debut the Wall-E robots, the animated character from last year's summer blockbuster film Wall-E, at the launch of Letao.com on June 27, 2008.

Bi said he smelled success even before Wall-E was shown in cinemas. Through a profit-sharing contract with Disney's sole agent of Wall-E products, Letao became the only licensed vendor of Wall-E robots on the mainland.

Apart from Walt Disney, Letao's toy suppliers also include Germany's Simba Dicke Group, Japan's Sega Corp. and France's Smoby International SA. Its partnerships with the world's premier toy brands and its successful product selection have been the two keys to Letao's smooth sailing up to now, Bi said.

Before the website was formally launched, Bi and his team invited 1,000 employees who worked in companies owned by their friends to play with and select 100 of more than 1,000 toys which are popular at traditional venues such as shopping malls and supermarkets. This market research method proved to be very effective for the company. It ended up offering 72 selected products online, and the sales and customer feedback it received met its expectations, Bi said.

Crisis equals opportunity

After a successful six-month marketing campaign, Letao's sales last December were seven times more than its sales in August, Bi said. The company now is processing around 1,000 new orders daily for special toys for Spring Festival gifts.

When he sat down in his office and talked to Beijing Review about his vision for Letao and the country's e-commerce industry amid the whirlwind of the global financial crisis, Bi said he was confident and ready for more challenges.