China's women entrepreneurs unite at Internet age

HANGZHOU - After getting pregnant five years ago, Liu Nan quit her job as a management trainee in a multinational company and became a dedicated full-time mother.

When it comes to mothering, Liu, from Shaanxi province, calls herself a perfectionist. "I want to offer my daughter the best things in the world," she said.

So, she began to surf foreign e-commerce websites, looking to buy quality baby products.

Eventually, more mothers came to solicit her opinions on choosing products and asking for her to help them buy things from abroad.

With fast growing demand, Liu opened a store on Alibaba's online retail platform taobao.com in 2011. Now, the 30-year-old the founder of a leading online retail website focusing on foreign baby products.

"My business is now like another baby," she said.

Shi Dongwei, vice-president of Alibaba, said the Internet has reduced the distance in terms of time and space, which can provide women entrepreneurs with possibility to balance family and career, and to better tap their potential.

In a report on women entrepreneurship released by Alibaba on Thursday, 50.1 percent of the 8.5 million online shop owners registered in Alibaba's shopping platforms are women.

Ding Hongyu, from southwestern Sichuan province, is one of many women who had their life transformed by online business success.

Suffering from brittle bone disease, Ding, 35, is only 82 centimeters tall.

Susceptibility to bone fractures deprived her of the chance to go to school as a child. At the age of eight, she developed an interest in painting and was addicted ever since.

In 2000, Ding decided to help support her family by selling paintings, but her physical disability prevented her from going out to attract any business.

Her life was changed in 2007 when a friend helped her register an online shop on taobao.com. She has been introducing her artworks and sharing life stories online, drawing much attention and many orders.

"Thankfully I was born in this great time. Although my life is tied up on the wheel chair, my dream is lighted up by the Internet," she said.