On January 4, it was reported that the Kindle may be ready to withdraw from the Chinese market . At present, most products in its official flagship store are out of stock.
As soon as the news came out, it soon aroused widespread discussion on social platforms. In addition to some Kindle users’ concerns about the authenticity of the rumors, there were also many comments such as “seeing this hot search, I remembered my gray Kindle”, “I haven’t used it much since I bought it”, “bubble noodle artifact” .
Since when has e-reader become a chicken rib product in the eyes of many people?
there is only one model left in JD. Taobao is closed
what happened to the Kindle?
On January 4, #kindle may withdraw from the Chinese market # and go on microblog hot search. The reporter of Beijing business daily observed that all Kindle products on Amazon’s official website in China are out of stock , and Jingdong’s Kindle official flagship store is also out of stock in a large area, only a youth e-book reader with a price of 658 yuan is on sale . As for Taobao platform, it is reported that the official Kindle Store was closed as early as last year .
As for whether the out of stock products will be replenished in the future, Jingdong customer service told the Beijing Business Daily: “this has not been notified for the time being. It is suggested to pay attention to our store and inform you when there are goods.”
Amazon China responded: “we are committed to serving Chinese consumers. Consumers can buy Kindle devices through third-party online and offline retailers. Kindle e-book readers are favored by consumers, and some models are sold out in the Chinese market.” In addition, the company emphasizes that customer service and warranty service will not change.
Amazon is one of the first companies to receive e-book reader dividends. On November 19, 2007, the First Generation Kindle went on the market and was sold out after only five and a half hours. However, at that time, Amazon was not in a hurry to let the Kindle enter the Chinese market, but waited for more than five years.
In June 2013, Kindle officially entered China, with sales far exceeding expectations; by the end of 2016, China had become the largest market for Kindle sales in the world; By 2018, the cumulative sales of Kindle e-book readers in China had reached millions.
In addition to the Kindle, Chinese companies are also eyeing this cake. Jingdong, Dangdang, Xiaomi, palm reading and other brands have launched their own brand e-book readers. According to tianyancha data, there are more than 2800 e-book related enterprises in China whose names or business scope include “e-books and e-books”, and whose status is in business, surviving, moving in and moving out.
However, compared with many domestic brand readers, the Kindle has always been the highest selling brand . Some netizens pointed out that the gap between the two mainly lies in the Kindle’s rich library resources.
mobile phones are the biggest competitor
The rise of e-book reader market in China, on the one hand is due to the portability of the product, on the other hand, it is inseparable from the booming online text market . According to the 2020 China network literature development report, in 2020, the scale of China’s network literature market will reach 24.98 billion yuan, the number of network literature users will reach 460 million, and the average daily active users will be about 7.5775 million.
However, compared with mobile phones, tablet computers and other consumer electronics products, e-book readers have a smaller overall scale, and the annual growth rate is slow . According to the data compiled by China Business Industry Research Institute, from 2014 to 2017, the market scale of e-book readers was 3 billion yuan, 3.2 billion yuan, 3.4 billion yuan and 3.7 billion yuan respectively, with an average annual growth rate of about 7%.
“The main reason is,” pointed out Wang Chao, founder of Wenyuan think tank, “Many people don’t have a separate demand for e-book readers. At present, there are many alternative products, such as mobile phones, tablets, PCs, etc. e-book readers may never become just needed products. They are just a niche product, and may not even have the high sales of console games such as Xbox and Playstation.” Discussion on Kindle and alternative products in the comments
In other words, in the Chinese market, Kindle’s biggest competitor is not other e-book readers, but mobile phones . The 2020 China digital reading report released by China audio visual and Digital Publishing Association shows that in 2020, the number of digital reading users in China will reach 494 million, and the per capita e-book reading volume will reach 9.1. However, mobile phone is still the main tool of E-reading.
Mobile phones have already become a must-have product for everyone. A variety of reading apps are available, and various self-produced content reading platforms are available, such as Jinjiang and Changpei. Choosing mobile phones to read can not only save the cost of buying readers, but also read more books and content; Although the Kindle has more book resources than other readers, users can only buy from the store provided by the system and can’t download the app by themselves. Moreover, TXT documents downloaded on the network need to be converted into Mobi and other formats, otherwise the content will be missing. Of course, e-book readers also have the advantage that mobile phones do not have, that is, eye protection.
So how can e-book readers stand firm in the Chinese market? “E-book reader enterprises should try their best to serve all audiences, that is, people who like immersive reading and long reading , and then do a good job in the supply of content.” Wang Chao said.
The reporter of Beijing Business Daily also noted that now Chinese manufacturers have begun to combine e-book readers with functions such as writing notes, voice transcription and sending and receiving e-mail , such as Hanwang Technology Co.Ltd(002362) deeply cultivated in the e-book reader market for many years. The relevant person in charge of the company introduced to the reporter of Beijing Business Daily that a handwritten e-paper product 1001 recently released in Hanwang Technology Co.Ltd(002362) adopts the Android open system, which can make the e-paper book have better system compatibility, such as using different kinds of apps to listen to songs, listen to books and take handwritten notes, so that its use scenario is no longer limited to reading.
(Beijing business daily)
