Image source @ Visual China
Wen 丨 Bear out of ink Please note that the author 丨彬彬
If it is not rumored to withdraw from the Chinese market, a large number of netizens may not remember, and there seems to be a Kindle that has not been charged for a long time in the drawer.
On the first working day of 2022, Kindle is still immersed in the atmosphere of "holiday". The official online channel Jingdong's self-operated flagship store is out of stock in a large area, and only one "Kindle Youth Edition" is on sale, and the product can be traced back to 2019.
In connection with the rumors on the market before, as well as the abnormal behavior of Kindle to close the Taobao store on the eve of Double 11, netizens have incarnated as Leeuwenhoek and unified the conclusion: Kindle is retreating.
Seeing that it has become a hot search on the whole network, Amazon's official appearance responded, understating the problem of supply shortage, and there is no exit.
Is this reassuring pill enough to stabilize people's minds? I believe that you have your own decision. From the perspective of industry observers, everyone's deep concern about the Kindle's stay in China is actually not due to this shortage storm.
Looking back at the electric paper book market, since the Kindle's unique show detonated the market, a large number of follow-ups have appeared in China, and the market has also quietly changed. Today, the opponent's siege is becoming more and more obvious, the title of Kindle's "bubble noodle cover" has become the norm from ridicule, and it is an indisputable fact that the golden age that belonged to the Kindle is gone.
Competitive siege, kindle is not the only option
The Kindle is a magical product that attracts the attention of the whole people as soon as something happens, but it is "forgotten" and eaten in ordinary days.
Weibo platform data shows that the #Kindle# topic itself has only been read by 190 million people after years of accumulation, and the number of reads of #Kindle or exiting the Chinese market in the past two days has exceeded 310 million. Before this hot search, the last time Kindle was hot searched seems to be the after-sales storm in 2019, when Kindle was interviewed by the Jiangsu Consumer Protection Commission because of consumer disputes.
Why is that? Is it because everyone's enthusiasm for reading has decreased in the past two years?
Non also.
According to the "2020 China Digital Reading Report" released by the China Audiovisual and Digital Publishing Association, in 2020, the scale of China's digital reading industry reached 35.16 billion, the scale of digital reading users reached 494 million, and the per capita number of e-books read reached 9.1. In addition, the formation of digital reading habits has made more and more users more willing to pay for high-quality content. In 2020, 26.8% of paying e-reading users spent an average of $100 or more per month.
Obviously, everyone's enthusiasm for reading has increased steadily. The fact that the environment is favorable can only show that consumers' enthusiasm for the Kindle is waning.
Who will meet the growing demand, domestic competitors.
Taking the double 11 two months ago as an example, Kindle was absent from Tmall Double 11 because of the closure of the store, and domestic brands such as Wenshi, iFLYTEK, Palm Reading, Ink Case, and Xiaomi occupied the sales list of e-readers. Jingdong platform, Kindle self-operated flagship store although participated in the promotion, the top of the list is still a domestic competitor.
Some insiders told Xiong Chumo, "If I remember correctly, this should be the first time that Kindle has lost in double 11 and has been compared to domestic brands." ”
This undoubtedly gave the industry a wake-up call, unconsciously, the electric paper book market has risen a large number of domestic brands, in addition to the double 11 list of brands, WeChat reading, Dangdang, Jingdong and so on have also launched their own e-readers. The siege of the former king Kindle by domestic followers is self-evident.
"There are too many options for users, and the Kindle's long-term out-of-stock state provides a window period for domestic brands to surpass," said the industry insider.
It is worth noting that in September 2021, Amazon officially released the new Kindle Paperwhite 5, and after the release, the product supply has been difficult to guarantee, and consumers need to set an alarm clock to participate in the rush. So far, there are only 2,000+ reviews in the evaluation area of the product in Jingdong's self-operated store.
Product shortages, competitors to catch up, this seems to lay the groundwork for the Kindle's large-scale shortage of goods, but also let everyone for the Kindle to withdraw from the Chinese market worries aggravated.
The "useless" commodity of the year, the Kindle really became a "bubble noodle lid"?
After the news that Kindle will withdraw from the Chinese market, the first reaction of many netizens is, "You can't use Kindle to cover the noodles!" ”
From the reading artifact to the "bubble noodle lid", although it is ridiculous, it reflects the sad reality.
On the one hand, Kindle products have been continuously updated over the past decade, but some inherent problems have not been heeded by consumers to improve.
For example, in terms of product size, Kindle is paranoid about staying in the small size field, with three product lines of youth, classic and premium edition, with dimensions of 6 inches, 6 inches and 7 inches respectively. The only large-screen product is its Kindle DX released in 2009, with a 9.7-inch screen that has long been discontinued.
Some users think that the small size of the Kindle is exactly similar to the physical book, while the other faction complains that the combination of small screen + large black edge affects the use experience. The controversy lasted for years, and the Kindle remained unmoved.
In contrast, the domestic competitors, the stubbornness of the Kindle has become their breakthrough. On the basis of the small size of traditional reading, brands such as Palm Reading and Wenshi have launched medium and large size products for the needs of users in different scenarios. Moreover, after the change of product form, domestic brands have expanded the extension space of e-readers through an open system ecology, in addition to reading, they can also provide services such as intelligent office.
If you don't advance or retreat, some netizens gave an evaluation to the Kindle that still stayed at the origin, "If the Kindle doesn't work hard, you may not even see the taillights of domestic readers in the future." ”
On the other hand, kindle may not have done anything wrong, but the user's reading habits have been fragmented, and its main pure reading is difficult to achieve, and the reading artifact has naturally become a "bubble face cover".
"I bought a Kindle when I was in graduate school, and I had a lot of free time and was too lazy to go to the library, and I could read more than a dozen books on the Kindle in one semester," Mark, a long-time user who has owned a Kindle for five years, Mark told Xiong Chumo, "I miss that time." ”
More flexible online reading apps have become an alternative in the changing times. On World Book Day 2021, the "Online Reading APP Big Data Report" released by Master Cicada shows that the online reading market continues to grow, and in January 2020 and March 2021, the total monthly download volume of App Store reading applications in China has maintained a growth of more than 26 million times.
But one thing to emphasize is that Mark doesn't think the Kindle's closed system, small size and other issues are not aggressive, "only in this way, can people sink their hearts to read, but it is no longer suitable for me now." 」 Eventually, he cut the love and hung the Kindle on the idle fish.
Second-hand platforms such as Idle Fish and Turning are actually the largest trading places for Kindle in China.
According to 2020 data, the annual transaction volume of the Kindle on the idle fish platform exceeded 400,000 units, with an average of more than 30,000 units per month, while Amazon officially disclosed that the annual sales of the Kindle were about 900,000 units. Among them, the key words described by many sellers are "ninety percent new" and "only used once or twice".
For every two Kindles sold, one will appear on the second-hand platform, and the Kindle has been named "'Useless' Merchandise of the Year" for two consecutive years. This also confirms the previous set of data, everyone's enthusiasm for reading, no longer need Kindle to release.
Fist product decline, Amazon defeat China or become a foregone conclusion
If, as the rumor goes, the Kindle may withdraw from the Chinese market, then the story of Amazon's defeat in China will be difficult to reverse. Because, after experiencing the previous defeats, the Kindle is Amazon's only remaining fist product in the Chinese market.
In 2004, Amazon acquired Excellence.com and cut into the Chinese market. At first, the e-commerce cake has not been completely divided, and Amazon's combat effectiveness in China is acceptable, with a market share of 15.4%. However, with the strong rise of platforms such as Taobao, JD.com, and Dangdang, Amazon's market share has gradually fallen to less than 1%, and it has survived in name only.
In 2019, Amazon officially announced that all its self-operated and third-party e-commerce businesses will be cut, and only Amazon overseas purchases, Amazon global selling, Amazon cloud computing and Kindle will be retained in the Chinese market.
Look at them one by one:
As a vertical branch of e-commerce, overseas shopping has never been able to match the volume of mainstream e-commerce platforms. In 2020, China's cross-border e-commerce imports, including Amazon's overseas purchases, totaled about 570 billion yuan. In contrast, Alibaba's GMV reached 8.12 trillion yuan, which is 14 times the total import volume of cross-border e-commerce.
In terms of global store openings, starting from May 2021, Amazon has launched a large-scale store closure, and Chinese sellers are the main targets of blocking, which is undoubtedly a heavy blow to the global store business in the Chinese market.
In terms of cloud business, Amazon's market share is not ideal, according to the report released by IDC, Amazon ranks fifth in the domestic public cloud market, with a share of only 7%. In front of it are Ali, Tencent, Huawei, China Telecom and other strong leaders.
Therefore, Amazon's hopes in the Chinese market are mostly pinned on the Kindle. Previously, Aberru, vice president of Amazon China and general manager of Amazon Reading China, also publicly stated that China has become Amazon's world's largest Kindle sales market.
According to the previous discussion, in line with the plot trend of other fields, domestic competitors are surrounded by external competitors, and Kindle, as a foreign brand, maintains a lonely arrogance of products and concepts, which in turn induces "water and soil dissatisfaction". Internally, the Kindle was trapped by the supply chain and could not guarantee an adequate supply of products.
All indications are that the problem of Kindle in China may not be so superficial as Taobao's closure and Jingdong's shortage of goods.
In fact, before being pushed to the hot search, the gossip in the Tieba forum such as Kindle and electric paper books has spread, "Amazon China employees verified and confirmed that the Chinese Kindle business team has been dissolved, and KPW5 is the last National Bank that can only buy non-National Bank versions after that." Beijing News Shell Finance also mentioned in the report that a number of independent sources within Amazon China revealed that the Kindle hardware team was laid off in November last year.
Historical experience tells us that whenever a brand has a major strategic change such as "exiting the market", the official is often the last to receive the notice. At this point, the Kindle parted ways with the Chinese market, perhaps only one official announcement.