Image source @ Visual China
Wen 丨 Lei Technology leitech, author 丨 sandwich
Readers who are familiar with electronic products will not be unfamiliar with the Kindle product. Although it was not optimistic before the launch, with the help of Amazon's unique huge library of e-commerce system, Amazon Kindle, an e-reader designed and sold by Amazon, really made the e-reader popular and widely known. Today, the Kindle has become synonymous with electric paper books.
Recently, according to the feedback of Weibo netizens, kindle's product line in Chinese mainland has changed, and the Jingdong Kindle self-operated store has suddenly appeared a large-scale out-of-stock situation, and netizens generally believe that this is a signal that Amazon's e-book business is about to withdraw from the Chinese market. Affected by this, the term #Kindle or exit the Chinese market was also rushed to the top of the Weibo hot search list this morning.
Although Amazon's self-operated e-commerce business has withdrawn from the Chinese market several years ago, Kindle and cross-border e-commerce are the two major businesses they have never given up. According to Amazon China's official report, since 2016, China has become the world's largest market for Amazon Kindle device sales. In this context, will amazon kindle really suddenly abandon the Chinese market? Taking this opportunity, let us analyze the beginning and end of this matter and the authenticity of the event.
01. Exiting the Chinese market? Just a false alarm!
If you're a regular reader of digital information, you'll find that the keyword #Kindle exiting the Chinese market isn't the first time it's been around in the past two years.
On July 1, 2019, Amazon China officially announced the closure of its own paper book sales service, and since then, searching for books on Amazon China's official website can only display third-party bookstore products. At the same time, Amazon also announced that it will no longer operate its Chinese market business from July 18 and stop providing services to merchants Amazon.cn Amazon's China website.
On July 19 of the same year, some netizens found that Amazon's official website no longer sold its own Kindle devices. Although users can still see the classification bar of the Kindle e-reader in the product category, after clicking into the Kindle store, they can only see a simple product introduction page, no Kindle product listing information, and instead of a jump link to Kindle's domestic flagship store.
It has to be said that Amazon's retreat from China's e-commerce business is very thorough, and this move once made netizens think that Amazon is ready to fully withdraw from China. However, according to Amazon, "Amazon has always had a long-term commitment to the Chinese market." On the basis of the existing good business, we will continue to invest and vigorously promote the steady development of various businesses in China, including Amazon Overseas Purchase, Amazon Global Selling, Kindle and Amazon Cloud Computing. ”
Perhaps in order to give domestic users a "reassuring pill", a week later, Amazon China held a new product launch conference, officially released three new color-matched e-book readers Kindle Paperwhite 4, of which the smoke purple and jade blue color matching is customized for Chinese users, Amazon China to convey to the outside world the determination to continue to cultivate the Chinese market.
However, the good times are not long, this morning, there are Weibo netizens feedback, Jingdong Kindle self-operated store suddenly appeared a large area of stockless situation. According to Xiao Lei's investigation, at present, the Kindle classic version, Kindle Paperwhite, Kindle Oasis and other products in the Jingdong Kindle self-operated store are in a state of in-stock, and only the Kindle youth version and some peripherals are still being sold.
Coincidentally, as early as September this year, some netizens found that the Tmall Kindle flagship store had entered a period of suspension of business. However, at that time, the store announcement showed that "the official is preparing a new Tmall flagship store", so netizens did not think much about it. However, to this day, the Tmall Kindle flagship store has never been restarted, which undoubtedly aggravates the negative speculation of netizens about the prospects of the Kindle.
So what is the truth? Let's head to Amazon to find out.
A little search, we can see that the shortage of Kindle products does not only occur in China, and even a large number of Kindle products on Amazon Overseas Shopping are currently generally out of stock. Even the Kindle Youth Edition (known as Kindle Kids overseas) that is currently in stock in China is currently out of stock, and only the suit version of the Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition is in stock.
In other words, the reason for the sudden large-scale shortage of Jingdong Kindle self-operated stores is actually very simple, that is, the simple goods are out of stock. As the customer service of the Kindle Jingdong self-operated flagship store stated, the current domestic flagship store has not received any news about this aspect (exit from the Chinese market), but if you want to ask when you can replenish, they have no way to give a specific time.
02, Kindle and China's fate
From the user's favorite e-reader, to the "best bubble noodle cover" in the mouths of netizens, to the speculation that it is going to quit China, Kindle's trip to China is indeed very sad. Some readers may wonder why netizens have such a big reaction to the shortage of merchandise in the Kindle flagship store? To understand this problem, we have to start with the fate of the Kindle and China.
On November 19, 2007, Amazon introduced the first Kindle. With a slightly rough white plastic casing, a 6-inch electronic ink screen, and only 250MB of memory capacity, it's hard for anyone who sees this product to associate it with the word "success." But its emergence has brought a huge impact to the traditional reading market, not only leading the Western world to the era of electronic reading, but also turning Amazon from a discount bookseller into the world's largest book retail market.
However, although Amazon pioneered the Kindle, it failed to enter the Chinese market. Taking advantage of this gap, highly perceptive domestic enterprises quickly launched a variety of similar products to occupy the market, the most famous of which is undoubtedly Hanwang Technology, which even listed on the small and medium-sized board with the concept of e-books, and then Founder, Shanda and other enterprises have also followed up, and have launched cheap e-book equipment with Chinese characteristics.
In the years that followed, Amazon's Kindle product line continued to develop steadily, successively launching the Kindle DX with a larger screen, the Kindle Keybaord with Wi-Fi support, the Kindle Fire for Android tablets, and the Kindle Paperwhite that revolutionized product design ideas, while the Kindle Paperwhite also became Amazon's best-selling version of the Kindle at that time.
While the Kindle is developing steadily, domestic e-book manufacturers are in crisis. In 2010, Apple's iPad turned out to be a success, and the concept of tablets quickly became popular in the Chinese market. The original concept of domestic paid reading is immature, under the impact of Apple iPad, Android tablet and cheap Windows tablet, domestic e-book manufacturers collapsed in one hit, and Hanwang Technology once stood on the edge of "ST".
Aiming at the empty window period of domestic manufacturers, at the end of 2012, Amazon China's official website quietly launched the Kindle store, providing free multi-platform Kindle reading software and up to 20,000 Kindle e-books, including thousands of free books. On June 7, 2013, Amazon's Kindle e-book reader announced its official entry into the Chinese market. Kindle hopes to establish a sound digital book sales model in China and gain market share for e-readers.
Compared with the long-criticized "ungrounded gas" of Amazon's China e-commerce business, Amazon's Kindle business is indeed remarkable in localization. In addition to the launch of China's exclusive color matching, the National Bank version of the Kindle has also joined hands with the Forbidden City and the Dunhuang Research Institute to launch customized versions and cooperation sets, around the "Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains" and other famous paintings of the Forbidden City and Dunhuang mural elements for in-depth development of protective shells, and Migu Reading to launch the Kindle X custom version, join hands with domestic writers to do reading promotion and so on.
Judging from the results, the National Bank version of the Kindle can be described as a remarkable achievement. 6 months after entering the Chinese market, the news that Amazon Kindle has become profitable in China has been reported on the market. By 2018, David Limp, then senior vice president of Amazon devices, said that Kindle has occupied more than 65% of the market share in the e-book field, and the Chinese market has grown into amazon's largest market for global Kindle device sales, and everything seems to be developing in a good direction.
03, Why did the Kindle fall?
Unfortunately, the upward momentum of the BNB version of the Kindle seems to have come to an abrupt end. In the years that followed, it was hard to see the amazon Kindle name in the mainstream news, and it seemed that no one cared about the new Version of the National Bank of China launched by the Kindle. Such a phenomenon can't help but make people think, what is the reason why the Kindle is no longer popular in the Chinese market?
Xiao Lei believes that the main reasons are the following three points. First, Kindle's product iterations have come to a near standstill in recent years. Looking back a little, it is not difficult for us to find that the Iterative Products of the Kindle have almost no configuration changes, even the high-end product Kindle Oasis 2, which only upgrades the screen size, increases the waterproof function, and is equipped with a metal integrated body, and even does not have a Type-C interface, which really makes people have no desire to update.
Second, The Kindle's domestic rivals are on the rise. In terms of software, domestic e-reading platforms are increasing, whether it is WeChat reading, QQ reading or palm reading, the active users of these platforms are significantly higher than the Kindle application, and the number of resources that Kindle is proud of has been impacted. In terms of hardware, while the iteration of Kindle products is almost stagnant, the similar products of domestic manufacturers are rapidly advancing iteration, and various color ink screens and NXTPAPER display technologies are emerging in an endless stream, and the use experience is doubly improved.
Third, and most importantly, adult hobbies have changed today. In the era of no mobile Internet, we like to read paper newspapers, periodicals, books to relieve their boredom on the commute; in the era when the mobile Internet was just popular, due to the limitation of network speed at that time, the digital reading industry that required less traffic developed rapidly, and online novels and electronic comics became the hottest leisure methods at that time.
Today, China's high-speed mobile network has been fully popularized, and we can already enjoy watching short videos on the commute road. With the increase of fragmentation time, people lack the desire to watch books and comics that take a long time to complete reading, and short videos of 1-3 minutes are obviously more in line with consumers' demand for commuting entertainment. From the perspective of content, the dissemination of text forms is far less than that of video and audio, and short videos preemptively occupy the user's time, which can be said to be the development dilemma faced by the entire digital reading industry.
To sum up, in the development of China's digital reading industry, Kindle has played the role of industry evangelist, technology provider, and standard setter, bringing a mature and standard operating model to the entire industry. Whether it is hardware or content, Kindle has been a leader in China's e-book market, leaving a strong mark for the development of the entire industry.
However, with the development of the times, today's Kindle seems to have been set off by opponents in the domestic hardware and software fields. The rapid popularity of the mobile Internet and the popularity of short video content have squeezed the few reading time of adults. Today, when the market environment and user habits have changed a lot, it may only be a matter of time before Kindle withdraws from the Chinese market.