China's 'Mark Zuckerbergs' find fortune, fame

Vertical e-tailing

27-year-old Jiang Lei is the CEO of Beijing Tiexue Technology, an operator of China's largest military affairs e-community site Tiexue.net.

Like many other young entrepreneurs, Jiang showed exceptional talent since he was a child.

A fast learner, he continued to skip grades at school, when until at the age of 16 he was enrolled at Tsinghua University, one of China's most prestigious universities.

Majoring in materials science, Jiang developed a keen interest in online communities. After only a year at university he had established the Tiexue e-community. By the age of 20, he had founded his own company and become its CEO.

Since his business continued to grow rapidly, in 2006, he decided to quit his doctorate at Tsinghua University. For two years, he didn't even tell his parents about his decision.

"I moved out of school and lived in a nine-square-meter room with my colleague. Sometimes it got so humid in there that moss would grow on the bed," he told Xinhua.

In 2007, Jiang Lei saw niche opportunities in the specialization trend of e-commerce based on his popular e-community, which had an average of 30 million hits every day last year.

"We already have a large membership base in our e-community, and the members could have an interest in military-inspired casual wear, including jackets, shirts, pants and footwear.

"If we can attract them to our online shop, then we're a success," he said.

Last year, through selling military-inspired casual wear and other related goods online, the company achieved sales of over 100 million yuan. And Jiang said sales are continuing to grow.

Mass e-tailers, with their competitive edge based on scale and venture capital, have posed challenges to specialty e-tailing through virtual communities.

To combat the problem, Jiang said it's crucial to "go upstream, " by developing close relationships with manufacturers.

"Vertical e-tailers need to build strong cooperation with renowned brands in their spheres and help to promote and improve the brands as well as provide value-added service," he said.

Jiang Lei also said, "Compared with other spheres, the Internet has a lower threshold for young entrepreneurs to start their own business."