Chinese Internet product comparison website MyETone.com says it has acquired rival Askyaya.com.

MyETone says the two sites together place the company far ahead of the competition among companies doing shopping comparison.

According to Ker Gibbs, CEO of MyETone, "The employees and investors have built a great company in Askyaya and we are extremely happy to be working with them as one team."

EastDay, a unit of Shanghai Media Group, has been the majority owner of Askyaya, along with Line Fan Technologies. A representative from Askyaya's board will join the board of MyETone. Ker Gibbs will be CEO of the combined company. According to Gibbs, all of Askyaya's employees, including management, will stay on and have been given equivalent roles in MyETone. Askyaya CEO Ji Xiaoxiung will stay on as a consultant.

A spokesman for EastDay, a division of Shanghai Media Group, said, "We are very pleased to see the merger of Askyaya and MyETone. We expect that the new company will continue to play a leadership role as China's e-commerce market develops. Ultimately this will bring more abundant shopping information and better services to Chinese consumers."

MyETone currently provides product reviews on a wide range of topics including cosmetics, mobile phones, and children's toys. The reviews are written by users of the products, and not influenced by the manufacturers. People who read the reviews are invited to make comments of their own, which are then read by other users. In this way, the website becomes a community of people with common interests.

Askyaya's approach to the market has been to concentrate on providing consumers with comprehensive price comparison data. According to Gibbs, "We stayed out of this area of the market until now. We wanted to watch the competition and evaluate the different approaches to managing price data. In the end we felt that Askyaya had the best approach."