The Kindle is out of stock in a large area, and Amazon responds to rumors of "withdrawing from the Chinese market"

Text/Forbes China

Image source: Visual China

On January 4, according to netizen feedback, kindle's product line in the Chinese mainland has changed, Jingdong Kindle self-operated store suddenly appeared a large area of stock, Kindle classic version and Kindle exclusive version are in a state of shortage, but many Kindle youth version is still in stock. Previously, the Kindle Taobao store has been closed, and netizens speculated that this is a signal that Amazon's e-book business is about to withdraw from the Chinese market.

For the Kindle's large-scale shortage of goods, JD customer service responded that the goods were hot. Kindle self-operated store customer service responded: "The lack of stock is because the manufacturer does not have the goods now, but the lack of goods is not removed from the shelves, when there is a temporary notice of the goods." Amazon officials responded to the message of "kindle or withdrawal from the Chinese market": "We are committed to serving Chinese consumers." Consumers can purchase Kindle devices through third-party online and offline retailers. Some models are currently sold out in the Chinese market. ”

The first generation of the Kindle was first released by Amazon in November 2007 as a product the same age as the iPhone. On June 7, 2013, Kindle entered China. At that time, it was reported that the Kindle had been profitable in the Chinese market for 6 months. In the following five years, the Chinese market has gradually grown to become the largest market for Kindle e-book readers. David Limp, then senior vice president of amazon devices, said China has become Kindle's largest market in the world and is growing at a double-digit rate every year.

In the past two years, the Kindle has become less and less powerful. As more and more e-book readers join the market, coupled with the continuous upgrading of mobile phone screens and technologies, the e-book reading experience on the mobile phone side is gradually comparable to the e-reader experience, which squeezes the living space of the Kindle to a certain extent. First of all, from the rise of competitors, there is Onyx Boox in terms of readers, and in terms of e-reading Apps, the active users of WeChat Reading, iReader, and QQ Reading are higher than those of Kindle App, while ByteDance launched the online novel product Tomato Free Novel in April 2019 and its user scale is also growing rapidly. In terms of physical books, the emergence of second-hand book trading platforms such as more fish has reduced the cost of book purchases by renovating second-hand books, and has also diverted some consumers who love to read books.