Source of this article: Times Weekly Author: Wang Xiaoran
On January 4, 2022, on the first working day of the new year, the related topic of "can't use Kindle cover noodles" once rushed to the first place in Weibo hot search, as of press time, the number of related topics read reached 17.949 million, and the number of related discussions was 3977.
The background of this topic rushing to the hot search is that a few days ago, some netizens broke the news that "the domestic Kindle official self-operated store products are out of stock in a large area, which is a signal for Amazon's e-book business to withdraw from The country." ”
The Times Weekly reporter retrieved relevant words on the e-commerce platform and found that the official flagship store of Amazon Kindle Tmall was closed at the end of October 2021 and has not yet recovered. On the Jingdong self-operated flagship store, in addition to the 8G memory of the youth version of the basic series of products is still on sale, other products are displayed out of stock.
The Times Weekly reporter asked Taobao's 2 crown stores "Kindle Grocery Store" customer service for verification, claiming that as a distributor has received a response from Amazon, "(Amazon e-book business) does not withdraw, rest assured."
Kindle Jingdong self-operated flagship store customer service told the Times Weekly reporter that it did not receive a notice of the withdrawal of the e-book business from China, "Some areas are currently out of stock, and the specific arrival time cannot be determined." The customer service also revealed to the Times Weekly reporter that the main reason for the out-of-stock of Kindle products is the "chip shortage", resulting in out-of-stocks of manufacturers and downstream markets.
For the reason for the large-scale out-of-stock of the Kindle, Amazon China company PR authorized the amazon group account director of Ogilvy Public Relations, replying to the Times Weekly reporter that consumers can purchase Kindle devices through third-party online and offline retailers. The high-quality customer service and warranty services provided by Amazon will not change. Some of the Kindle e-book readers are currently sold out in the Chinese market.
The Times Weekly reporter learned from the third-party dealers on the Taobao platform "Kindle Premium Official Store", "Kindle E-Reader Enterprise Store" and "Kindle Grocery Store" that most of the Kindles currently on sale are foreign (Japanese version, American version) source, which is different from the purchase channel of The Bank of China's products. The above-mentioned kindle e-reader enterprise store customer service continues to introduce that the foreign version of the source and the domestic licensed source, but there is a difference in its after-sales warranty terms, and there is no difference in product configuration. Consumers have concerns about the warranty service of the later version of the Kindle, and the consumer "high *** tweet" said, "The foreign version is produced in foreign countries, and it is impossible to send it abroad for repair if it is broken, so everything is responsible for itself." ”
Regarding questions such as "whether there is a problem due to chip supply" and "whether the e-book business will withdraw from China", the account director of Ogilvy Public Relations repeatedly replied to the Times Weekly reporter with the same reply.
On the issue of "chip shortage", An Guangyong, an expert member of the Credit Management Committee of the All-Union Mergers and Acquisitions Association, told the Times Weekly reporter that from the perspective of the industry, the chip manufacturing of e-book readers does not have too high technical barriers. If the demand in this field is strong and the profit margin is high, many low-end semiconductor manufacturers will rush to solve the chip shortage problem soon.
In An Guangyong's view, "the current out-of-stock is mainly due to the reduction of demand in the market and the lack of stimulation on the demand side." Wang Meiting, a researcher at the Bank of China Research Institute, further said, "The main reason for the shrinking e-reader market is that its profit model is problematic. ”
It is reported that the first generation of Amazon Kindle products was released in November 2007, is the same age as the iPhone product, on June 7, 2013, it officially entered the Chinese market, becoming its "money-making weapon" in the Chinese market.
In 2018, Amazon, which is "five years old" in China, first launched the 2013-2018 e-reading related data report, during the reporting period, since June 2013, the Kindle e-book reader has sold millions of units in the Chinese market, and since the end of 2016, China has continued to become the world's largest market for Amazon Kindle devices.
But as e-reading devices become more ubiquitous in the Chinese market, Amazon Kindle faces increasing competitors. According to Tianyan, there are currently more than 2,800 e-book companies in China. In recent years, the joke of "half cover bubble noodles and half hang idle fish" circulating from time to time is enough to see the embarrassing situation of Amazon's e-book business.
At present, Kindle products are divided into three series, Kindle Youth Edition, Kindle Paperwhite Classic Edition, and Kindle Oasis Premium Edition, with prices starting from 638 yuan, 998 yuan and 2399 yuan respectively.
Wang Meiting explained to the Times Weekly reporter that the main model of e-reader operators such as Amazon is to sell e-readers at low prices to lock in users, and to obtain profits through users' subsequent purchase of e-books. However, the fast-growing high-paying categories such as online novels, comics, and teaching aids in the paid reading market are not the areas that e-readers are good at, and Chinese readers lack the motivation to buy e-books on e-readers.
Xiang Ligang, an expert in the communications industry, also told the Times Weekly reporter, "For Kindle, the biggest problem is product competitiveness. ”
The domestic e-reader market where Kindle is located is relatively niche, and has already brought together a number of domestic brands such as Palm Reading, Reading Text, JD.com, Dangdang, and Wenshi. Most of the business models of the above brands are no different from The Kindle, that is, in addition to selling reader hardware, they mainly rely on the later sale of digital book resources to make profits, the differentiation is not obvious, and the market competition is fierce.
On the other hand, due to the energy saving and reading experience of mobile phones getting better and better, the relative advantages of e-readers such as eye protection and long battery life continue to weaken.
According to the "2020 China Digital Reading Report" released by the China Audiovisual and Digital Publishing Association, in 2020, the number of digital reading users in China reached 494 million, and the per capita number of e-books read reached 9.1. The results of the eighteenth National Reading Survey show that from the perspective of media contact time, adult citizens have the longest daily contact with mobile phones, and mobile phones are the main tool for electronic reading.
"The above reasons have made it difficult to open the e-reader market, and the profits of operators such as Amazon have been gradually depressed." Wang Meiting's prediction of the e-reader market is not optimistic: "The current market demand for e-readers is still stable, but if mobile phones and tablets are further optimized, and the space of e-readers in high-paying areas such as novels cannot be further improved, then the market for e-readers will still be constrained." ”
Although the news of "Amazon e-books withdrawing from China", the official did not give a positive response. However, from the current market experience, if no action is taken, it may only be a matter of time before it is far from prosperous to lonely in the Chinese market.