Amazon.cn formerly Joyo.com (Chinese: 卓越网) and Joyo Amazon (卓越亚马逊), is a Chinese

China

Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

 shopping website located in Beijing

Beijing

Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...

. In 2004, it was acquired by Amazon.com

Amazon.com

Amazon.com, Inc. is a multinational electronic commerce company headquartered in Seattle, Washington, United States. It is the world's largest online retailer. Amazon has separate websites for the following countries: United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Japan, and...

.

Original

Joyo.com was an IT

Information technology

Information technology is the acquisition, processing, storage and dissemination of vocal, pictorial, textual and numerical information by a microelectronics-based combination of computing and telecommunications...

 information service and download website before 2000.

Joyo was founded by Kingsoft

Kingsoft

Kingsoft is a software company located in China. Its products include Kingsoft Office, PowerWord, Kingsoft Internet Security, Kingsoft free antivirus and the Kingsoft FastAIT Chinese-English-Japanese translation software....

 in August 1998, while Joyo.com became a website in February 1999.

At that time, Joyo had only five employees, but in half a year, it became the 33rd-largest Chinese website, and published a CD of software.

Online bookstore

Kingsoft decided to make Joyo.com into a online bookstore in 1999.

Joyo.com stopped providing download services and IT information in 2000 and released a new online bookstore website at the same time.

Initially, Joyo was only able to provide the online bookstore service in Beijing. In December, Joyo started to provide service in Shanghai

Shanghai

Shanghai is the largest city by population in China and the largest city proper in the world. It is one of the four province-level municipalities in the People's Republic of China, with a total population of over 23 million as of 2010...

. And April 2003, started to provide service in Guangzhou

Guangzhou

Guangzhou , known historically as Canton or Kwangchow, is the capital and largest city of the Guangdong province in the People's Republic of China. Located in southern China on the Pearl River, about north-northwest of Hong Kong, Guangzhou is a key national transportation hub and trading port...

.

In the same month, Joyo.com became profitable. In September, Joyo got $52 million investment from Tiger Management

Tiger Management

Tiger Management Corp., also known as "The Tiger Fund," was a hedge fund founded by Julian Robertson. The fund began investing in 1980 and was closed in March 2000.-History:...

. Since then, Joyo has sold commodities

Commodity

In economics, a commodity is the generic term for any marketable item produced to satisfy wants or needs. Economic commodities comprise goods and services....

.

Amazon

Amazon.com took over Joyo for $75 million on August 19, 2004. It became 7th regional website of Amazon.com after U.S.

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

, France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

, Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

, Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

, and United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

.

On June 5, 2007, "joyo.com" was renamed to "amazon.cn" and its Chinese name was switched from "卓越网" (Joyo Network) to "卓越亚马逊" (Joyo Amazon).

On October 27, 2011, Amazon China's Chinese name was changed from 卓越亚马逊 (Joyo Amazon) to 亚马逊中国 (Amazon China).