An advertising board promoting e-commerce in Nanjing, Jiangsu province. E-commerce is booming in China, while competition is fierce. [Photo / China Daily]

Offering low prices for all kinds of goods invites criticism. A number of brands that sell high-end products, such as cosmetics and watches, refuse to supply to Dangdang as this will disrupt their pricing systems and eat into their margins.

"So we skip them and import goods directly from foreign dealers," Li said, satisfied with his tactics.

However, in e-commerce, everyone is trying to gain the upper hand, and Dangdang sometimes has to play catch-up.

Tianmao, formally known as Taobao Mall under Alibaba Group, is still the biggest player in the business-to-consumer market by number of transactions, having 35.7 percent of the share last year, followed by Jingdong Mall's 13 percent, according to domestic research company Analysys International. Dangdang ranked a distant fifth with 1.6 percent.

Li, a man who loves the thrill, the cut and thrust, the risks of cutting edge commerce, may have found himself on a different track had he not met his wife Peggy Yu and jointly founded Dangdang in 1999. The couple are very different people but the sum is a subtle success.

"She thinks my team is a bit too slack, too life-loving, but I said 'what's wrong with this?'" he said. Li, who finds working at home more efficient than in the office, said all Dangdang employees can choose one day every week to work at home, while Yu doesn't think it is a good idea.

Unlike Li, Yu prefers steadiness and order. That's why they have a routine each year - they debate and sometimes quarrel over the company's goals for the following year.

"She has her own thoughts and I have mine. We try to reach a meeting of minds but, if we fail, we go to the board," he said. There have been times the two have asked others on the board to vote for their choices.

"Every time when we are going to have a board meeting, I told the senior executives that you have to get used to and deal with our differences," Li said. "There is no forbidden zone for a brainstorm, but once a decision is made, everyone has to act on it."

Li is responsible for the daily operation of the company, while Yu, the executive chairwoman, looks after government relations and company strategy.

Yu's steadiness saved the company in 2000 when an Internet bubble swept across the world, forcing many companies to close as a result of lack of money.

Yu, who received a master's degree in business administration in the United States and worked in Wall Street, had ensured the company was in a position to enable it to survive the entrepreneurial blizzard. She described it as "preparing enough cotton-padded clothes for the winter".

There is one thing, however, Li doesn't debate with Yu and, instead, is happy with what his wife has done, and that is talking to Wall Street.

"It's because of Peggy that we managed to raise funds and get listed in the US. US investors find her trustworthy as a person who studied and worked in their country," he said, recalling when they met the investors.

"They chatted and joked, talking about cooking, religion and history, which outgrew my poor English," he said.