Dangdang.com, China's biggest online book retailer, is still waiting for a better time to launch e-book services, a branch that may help it catch up with its US counterpart Amazon.com and defend itself in the ever fiercer competition of online bookselling in China.

Roger Huang, chief operating officer of Dangdang, said the company has been following the development of digital books for years, but it is still too early to say when it will enter that market in full swing.

"The time is not ripe," Huang said. Huang has three concerns - the high price of electronic readers, rampant copyright infringement and not enough e-book buyers.

"Electronic readers cost on average about 1,000 yuan ($150) in China, but people can buy up to 50 Chinese books for that," he said.

In the United States, a standard e-book reader is the cost equivalent of about 12 books. That relatively small cost attracts Americans to e-readers, which can store hundreds of books.

Copyright infringement, the biggest concern US-based Amazon.com has about introducing its electronic reader, Kindle, to the Chinese mainland, also concerns Dangdang.

"Government regulations on copyright protection for books are looser than those for music copyright," Huang said. Several years ago, music could be downloaded for free from websites such as Baidu.com, but the regulations have now tightened. Pirated books, however, are still widespread, he said.

In addition, Dangdang is waiting more Chinese people to get in the habit of reading online or with electronic devices, Huang said.

Since the e-reading market is still warming up, Dangdang is biding its time. A premature move could be detrimental, Huang said.