China's top B2C (business-to-consumer) company 360buy.com plans to build the largest e-commerce distribution center in Asia by 2012, overtaking Amazon's facility in Tokyo.

Liu Qiangdong, CEO of the company, said the new distribution center will occupy 300,000 sq m. A single warehouse might be as big as 150,000 sq m, 20,000 sq m larger than Amazon's warehouse in Tokyo.

360buy.com plans to invest 600 million to 800 million yuan in the new center. It will be completed and go into service in 2012.

The center will help the company enhance its service ability and meet its increasing demand to process tens of thousands of orders a day.

But Liu declined to reveal the location because he said the company was still in talks with different district governments.

"Firstly, we want to choose a place where transport is good," Liu said. "Secondly, since we will acquire a huge amount of land, of course, the cheaper the better."

Liu said he intends to sign a contract with a district government next week.

Liu said one of the places he was considering was Tongzhou, since its district government ambitiously plans to build the area into a national e-commerce base and will provide preferential policies for e-business companies.

Zhao Zhen, office director of Tongzhou district commission of commerce, said: "I heard they may also move the company's headquarters to Tongzhou, not just build a new distribution center here."

Zhang Ying, senior vice-president of Analysys International, said the center will help 360buy.com establish an advantage over other competitors, such as Joyo.com, Amazon's arm in China, and Dangdang, the largest local online bookstore.

"Chinese B2C companies have now entered the fight and they need better services such as punctual delivery and few operating mistakes," he said.

360buy.com is usually called Jingdong Shopping Mall in Chinese. The name consisted of the last Chinese character of Liu's first girlfriend and his first name - Qiangdong.

"When I started my own business, she was with me. Afterwards, we separated, but the name is unchanged."

It grew from a lonely booth in Zhongguancun selling keyboards, and disks in 1998, to the first online shop in 2003.

It has more than eight million registered members, and processes more than 35,000 orders a day.

Last year, 360buy.com realized revenue of 4 billion yuan, jumping from 1.4 billion yuan in 2008. It has 28 percent of market share of the B2C field.

"The goal for this year is 10 billion yuan, and I am really sure to achieve it," Liu said.