SHENZHEN – E-Commerce firm China Dangdang Inc, the Chinese version of Amazon.com, will step up effort to penetrate China's second and third-tier cities, its founder and chairperson said on Monday.

"We are going to do more in second and third-tier cities," Yu Yu told China Daily on the sidelines of an IT forum in Shenzhen. "We plan to build more storage and logistics centers in Southwest China and smaller cities."

Dangdang, which was listed on the New York Stock Exchange in December, announced earlier this month that its revenue grew 56.5 percent year-on-year to 2.28 billion yuan (US$350 million) last year. Net income increased 82 percent to 30.8 million yuan.

But analysts said the company is facing fiercer competition at home as its rivals Taobao and 360buy.com are adopting a low-price strategy to win bigger market shares.

Dangdang, which basically sells books online, will diversify its businesses, Yu said.

"We are going to sell more categories of goods," she said, naming cosmetics, home decoration and furniture, and mother and baby care goods as Dangdang's future focus.

US investment bank Goldman Sachs lowered the price target of Dangdang shares from $24 to $22 in a research note to investors on March 24.