Venture capital funds have invested in social networking sites and news portals in China only to find that the Chinese government isn't willing to let information flow too freely around the Mainland. But how about commercial goods? Is e-commerce the logic replacement for the emphasis on information in the the Internet sector?

The Agence France Press published a report earlier this week on how e-commerce is "gaining a foothold" in China. According to the article:

Fifty-five million of China's Internet users shopped online last year for a total turnover of 59.4 billion yuan (8.25 billion dollars), according to the China Internet Research Centre in Beijing.

That is up from 43 million online shoppers in 2006, when the value of transactions stood at 4.3 billion dollars, the centre said - and an even larger jump from the 62 million dollars spent online in 2000.

Maybe online shopping will prove to be a less politically sensitive area for venture capital and private equity to dabble in over the next few years in China...