Biyao's Bi Sheng is on a mission to revolutionise e-commerce

Bi Sheng is a man on a mission. He wants to revolutionise e-commerce by cutting out wasted inventory for manufacturers and doing away with middlemen who mark up prices. His website Biyao.com lets shoppers buy directly from manufacturers, thus offering cheaper prices. The Hebei native says this is only the first step in his ambitious goal to change the way people shop online.

Tell us about your career so far.

I was a business assistant to Robin Li Yanhong, co-founder of the mainland's top search portal Baidu, when the company was still a start-up. I became its chief marketing officer within four years. In 2005, I left Baidu after it went public on the Nasdaq. For the next two years, I didn't work as my parents were quite ill and I had to care for them.

Lei Jun, founder of the mainland's top smartphone maker Xiaomi, is a good friend of mine. At a time when I was very much in need of help and support, he encouraged me to start my own business.

We scraped together US$2 million and launched Letao.com to sell shoes online. It soon became the mainland's top online shoe retailer.

Why did you sell Letao?

Letao was not short of investment. It also generated good revenue. But because of the way e-commerce is structured on the mainland, the margins were very low. We had to offer our customers subsidies to draw them to our site.