It is too early for the Kindle to enter the Chinese market

Everyone is talking about the Kindle.

When Hou Xiaoqiang, CEO of Shanda Literature, was not optimistic about Amazon’s response to China’s publishing policy, Hanwang’s chairman Liu Yingjian commented that the Kindle product line was too single. The vice president of Yangtze River Literature and Art Publishing House, Li Bo, told CBN Weekly that although he is not optimistic about current electronic publishing, if the Kindle enters China, “someone will probably follow the rules.”

Things have to start with that job information. On July 29th, the "Daily Economic News" said that on the website of Amazon, it discovered the position of "Senior Manager of Kindle Supplier Management" and the work place was in Beijing. Two weeks later, major portal websites published news that Kindle has been officially admitted to China. Confirmation, named "Golden Reading"; in September, the publishing industry rumors that Amazon has set up factories in Shenzhen, each priced at 100 US dollars; even Amazon insiders revealed that Amazon has sent Chinese proficient Chinese executives directly to Beijing management.

However, Jeff Bezos said that the Kindle will not come. On September 21, Bezos responded to "First Financial Weekly" through Amazon Customer Relations Director Allissa Bratager: "Now the Kindle reader and corresponding content are not in China and we hope to plan in the future." This verifies the Amazon PR Director Kim Jun's statement: "US headquarters believes it is too early to enter the Chinese electronic publishing market."

The Kindle really didn't come, like the legendary Godo who couldn't wait any longer. Chinese consumers can buy the $139 Kindle 3 on Amazon. The Kindle 3 is never aimed at Chinese products. Although it supports multi-country reading, it is also a US product designed for English reading. Liu Yingjian, Hanwang's president, can rest assured that the strongest competitors will not come to grab him, but there is no strong hand. What does this mean?

The happiest thing is that it may be that Hanwang may not even understand why the same E-ink technology was adopted. Liu Ying, the Kindle that appeared in 2007, was more successful than Sony's eReader. However, after three years, he also did not want the same strike to happen to him. The company's strategy of using handwriting recognition as its core technology is to develop as many e-reader varieties as possible, and continue to stand in the ranks of new technologies when the industry's profits are declining. Liu Yingjian said that by the end of the year, he will establish an R&D center in Taiwan and become the world’s first hardware vendor to use Yuantek’s color E-ink screen.

The Kindle does not mean that cheap and powerful end products will not appear immediately. The Hanwang can continue to sell electronic paper books in the store. The first-mover advantage makes its "electronic paper book" almost become the industry's lingua franca. Of course, the Kindle is not a simple digital product. What really is powerful is Amazon's content platform.

The most frustrating thing is probably CITIC and its brothers. If the Kindle does not come, institutions such as CITIC Publishing could only place terminals on products like Hanwang or Bambook. For Hanwang who has no platform experience, neither the intellectual property protection nor the copyright marketing strategy can guarantee the content organization; and although Bambook relies on Shanda's “three-dimensional copyright operation”, it will take into account the relative niche market like CITIC. Not yet known.

The "national team" who has won the sword may have the opportunity to integrate. Nie Zhenning, president of the China Publishing Group, has no liking to talk about this topic. On October 10, the General Administration of Press and Publication issued 20 opinions on the development of e-book industry. China Publishing Group is the only company mentioned by name. As long as there are no foreign competitors, integrating domestic resources has never been more complicated than the "national team", especially terminal hardware. The idea is to speed up e-book standards development. There are standards for power. This may be a good thing for other publishers. However, it cannot be overlooked that Xinhua Bookstore Head Office, China's largest traditional paper media distribution agency, is an important asset of the China Publishing Group. Will it be the strongest opponent of e-books?

Bambook may feel that he has won time again. In this matter, he really spared no effort: In addition to using the starting point, Jinjiang and Hong Shuang and other literary websites to establish Yunzhong Book City, he also held two websites that mainly listen to books and periodicals to expand resources. The former has trained a group of readers who are accustomed to pay for reading, and Hou Xiaoqiang is also preparing to visit the publishers in the wait and see. “Tell them what the future of cooperation with Shanda is.”

The price of 999 yuan in Bambook, according to Liu Yingjian's statement, the cost price of 1600 yuan, sell one lose one. If the platform is properly constructed, it may be possible to use the "micro-payment" balance; however, the biggest problem for Shanda is that the decision is unclear, and several press conferences are held, and their firm determination is not seen.

Let's take a look at the map and see what will happen next. “It's still screwing around everywhere,” says Shen Haobo, president of the Iron Rail Book. In Tripoli's words, "There is no temptation now."

In terms of content providers such as Grinding Iron, publishing is an industry that specializes in the medical industry, and resources are scattered. It is difficult for people in China to integrate copyrights on a large scale like Amazon. Looking at these puzzles in Figure B, they have almost one-to-one correspondence with Amazon's competitive advantage, and it looks like a complete industrial chain. However, after a closer look, Hanwang, which has an advantage in the hardware terminal, did not provide a good platform model. Even with the grand bookstore in the cloud, there is no credible profitability mechanism. The most likely to integrate copyright resources is not yet done, and the publishing group itself wants to get involved in the overall operation from content to the terminal. Under the chaos, what scale does it have?

“The most conservative people will think that electronic publishing is a trend, but no one will give in. They would rather not cultivate this market.” Hou Xiaoqiang said that he said that publishers are not lack of confidence in the profit model, or that the profitability is expected to be too high.

Let's take a look at Figure C. If the competitors go it alone, they may "dead" where they are. One of the most embarrassing possibilities is Amazon.com. If the Kindle has not come, it will not even find the right partner.

The 20 articles of the General Administration of Press and Publication have somewhat changed the situation: Will there be a leader in the future?

We need a leader to let us try to add competitors together. Figure D shows the possible permutations and combinations. Even if it is the most likely combination of success, Shanda + Hanwang + Dangdang, or the advantage of Amazon, isn't it? ?

"The Chinese publishing industry lacks an overall value." Hou Xiaoqiang said.

The potential leader China Publishing Group may change this situation, but now everything is still uncertain. The most powerful adversary is still the Amazon Kindle. The chaotic Chinese electronic publishing market needs to form a concerted effort. Even so, they have to face a complicated environment. Look at those in Figure E, even if you don't consider the piracy situation, there are invisible opponents. China Mobile's 540 million users are temptations for any publisher.

Is it just that everyone really does not care about the size of the screen? Reading time can certainly be spent on mobile reading, but reading and studying can be more than just passing on time.

Going on waiting for Godo to return to Figure A, Amazon's smiling face means a set of systems, from the concept of knowledge sharing, platform construction and technology applications are indispensable. Don't forget, this is a Silicon Valley company. Only at that mysterious Silicon Valley laboratory named Lab126, there were at least 1,000 people working for Amazon. Many of the core characters come from Palm, Apple, and Motorola. Lab126 can even develop any consumer electronics device that can expand Amazon's digital content layout.

Without strong opponents, this will only be a small market.

Of course, there is still a market that has never been talked about: teaching materials. To e-readers for children, both environmental protection and future readers. But this is the true lifeblood of the publishing and distribution of Chinese books. Will vested interests be willing to give up this market? Think about it.

A. Why the Kindle will successfully produce 01 and have 1,000 people working on Lab126, an Amazon subsidiary company that develops the Kindle. Many of the core characters are from Palm, Apple, and Motorola. Among them are 20 senior software engineers and 4 industrial designers. President Gregg Zehr was the vice president of hardware design for Palm. 02 Brand Amazon was born in 1995. Jeff Bezos invented a more efficient way to purchase books. Turn it into an online Walmart. Twelve years later, Bezos made the e-book a new trend with the Kindle name. If it is impossible to establish a system platform that can “pay for books” at the same time and “can share royalties with self-service”, then these enthusiastic participants can only make a small market.