Understanding what customers want is crucial in this market, so Gurr is improving his Mandarin. Yet, he does not believe there is a great deal of difference between online shoppers here and those in Western countries.
"They care about getting the products they want at fair prices," he said. "They are all looking for a good shopping experience. Those things don't really change."
As for the future, Gurr does not see Amazon China becoming a totally localized version of the parent company here.
"I think for our organization, if you launch a purely local version, you can move fast, but you will throw away your advantages in scale and technology," he said. "It would be a mistake for us to run a completely isolated business in China."
BIO
Doug Gurr
President of Amazon China
Born: Leeds, England, United Kingdom
Education
1983-1986: Bachelor degree in mathematics from University of Cambridge, England, UK
1986-1987: Master degree in mathematics from University of Cambridge, England, UK
1987-1990: PhD in Theoretical computing, University of Edinburgh, Scotland, UK
Career
September 2014 to present: President of Amazon China
December 2011-August 2014: Vice-president of hardlines at Amazon.co.uk, the company's UK division
2006-December 2011: Senior executive and board member at Wal-Mart Stores Inc's UK operation, Asda Stores Ltd
April 2001-July 2006: CEO and founder of Internet startup Blueheath
1995-2001: Partner with McKinsey & Co, a multinational management consulting firm in the US
Source: Doug's linkedin profile
Copyright 1995 - . All rights reserved. The content (including but not limited to text, photo, multimedia information, etc) published in this site belongs to China Daily Information Co (CDIC). Without written authorization from CDIC, such content shall not be republished or used in any form. Note: Browsers with 1024*768 or higher resolution are suggested for this site.
License for publishing multimedia online 0108263 Registration Number: 130349 
