Author: Financial Afternoon Tea
Qu Hongbin is the president and director of Guomai Culture.
Founded in 2012, Guomai Culture (stock code: 301052) is mainly engaged in cultural media businesses including book planning and distribution, digital content, IP derivatives and operations. The company has planned and published a variety of blockbuster books, such as "The Little Prince", "Skin Bag", "Six Memories of Floating Life", "Story" and so on. It has signed writers such as Yi Zhongtian, Han Han, Yang Hongying, Luo Xiang, Cai Chongda, Zhang Haochen, etc., and participated in the production of famous films such as "After Forever", "Riding the Wind and Waves", "Flying Life" and so on.
Financial Afternoon Tea specially invited Mr. Qu Hongbin to be a guest of the dialogue column of "Financial Afternoon Tea" to share with financial friends the future of the publishing industry, the secret of creating explosive books, the value of private traffic and other topics.
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A "restless" heart that has been passed down through the lines
Financial Afternoon Tea: The name "Guomai" is very interesting, is there any deep meaning behind it?
Qu Hongbin: Now there are roughly three kinds of sayings, the first is "really big selling", hoping that books can sell well; the second is "fruit and wheat", which is understood as "spiritual food"; the third is our original intention, to take a word in the names of the two most admired companies - the very innovative apple, the work method and the ultimate employee care of McKinsey.
Finance Afternoon Tea: Guomai is a cultural publishing industry, what do you think is the most important inspiration given by high-tech company Apple and consulting company McKinsey to Guomai?
Qu Hongbin: In the publishing industry, after a long period of grinding and ups and downs, we find that we should not completely stand in the perspective of a "student" and look at the career we are engaged in. We are doing business, so there must always be a spirit of innovation.
There have also been times when I was very confused and had a lot of problems inside. However, we believe that the root of these problems lies in the fact that we do not understand the essence of business, but completely think on the basis of traditional book publishing habits and experience, so it seems to be somewhat out of touch with the market.
Therefore, the fruit must have a business acumen. In fact, in any industry, there must be a spirit of innovation, otherwise in a relatively traditional industry, it will become more and more traditional.
Guomai has always had a "restless" gene and always wants to innovate. From the beginning, Guomai has been very admired for companies that make innovations and have a good company culture and working methods. Apple and McKinsey were the best examples we should have learned from at the time.
Finance Afternoon Tea: Guomai has a "restless" heart, is it related to Lu Zong (Lu Jinbo) and your personal experience?
Qu Hongbin: It should be said that there is. Lu was always from the Internet and was the editor-in-chief of China's earliest Internet literature website "Under the Banyan Tree". Although I was assigned to a state-owned publishing house as an editor after graduating from university, I also had a "restless" heart.
At that time, I had been an editor for less than 4 years, and I felt that I didn't understand the market at all just by doing text work, so I asked the leader to write a report and asked to be transferred to the distribution department. After working in the distribution department for 5 years, I felt that I saw the ceiling and applied to the foreign cooperation department. My first job was in Yunnan, and although Yunnan was a good place, it was relatively remote for the cultural industry, so I made up my mind to go to Shanghai.
Therefore, we both have a "restless" heart, and the "restlessness" of the fruit is also related to this.
Finance Afternoon Tea: Did you jump from the original state-owned publishing industry to the market because of the tide of the economy or the touch of something?
Qu Hongbin: First of all, the tide of the market. More than 20 years ago, when China's reform and opening up was in full swing, the world underwent rapid changes, and new models and products appeared at any time.
Lu Zong did not continue to be a writer, but became a person who served writers. As for myself, in retrospect, the decision to leave the state-owned publishing house in the system was also very bold.
At that time, the teaching materials of primary and secondary schools in the whole yunnan province were operated by my company, and the economic benefits were very good. However, I thought that if I didn't change the environment and try it in Shanghai, I wouldn't have the time and opportunity. Now the opportunity is in front of me, in the end the future direction is good or bad, no one can say, but the opportunity is only once. So whether it is for individuals or enterprises, seizing opportunities is the most important, and any opportunity is not a nail in the coffin. For me, even if there is only 30% hope, I am willing to try, which is why I have such a bold decision.
However, this decision is very controversial in my family. Because my parents and siblings were both teachers at school. I was the first person to break the family routine and go out into society. Because I saw a possibility, even if it was not very big, but I felt that I could turn the possibility into reality through my own efforts.
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It starts with value, not just looks
Finance Afternoon Tea: Are you engaged in the publishing industry because you used to love to read and hope to share your feelings with young people?
Qu Hongbin: As the saying goes, reading is not omnipotent, but not reading is a panacea. I was fortunate to be able to work in the publishing industry and read a large number of Chinese and foreign masterpieces, which gave me cultural influence. There is a spirit in the culture, and this spirit will subtly affect a person afterwards.
Today's young people face too many temptations, mobile phones, all kinds of new media, all kinds of fragmented information, and games will attract a lot of energy. But what I can be sure of is that if a person does not like to read, his progress will be very slow.
Don't read a book with a quick fix on success, hoping for immediate help. The benefit of reading is that it is silent. At a certain stage, you will find that you have read books before, and the character image, character personality, spiritual realm of the character, and the pursuit of the character in career or all aspects will subtly affect yourself.
Financial Afternoon Tea: What kind of spirit do these books published by Guomai want to convey to readers?
Qu Hongbin: One of the slogans of Guomai is "the pursuit of value and beauty". People will face a variety of choices in their lives, but often people can not choose much, then it is necessary to choose the most valuable one.
Taking books as an example, every year China publishes a vast sea of books. However, for guomai, not all books can be sold, and they must be selected to conform to the values and aesthetics of guomai.
Now there are a lot of online articles, and people often ask me, why doesn't Guomai do some online reading works? I thought about it for a moment, that market is really big, but it doesn't belong to the fruit and wheat. Fruit and wheat should provide everyone with something of value.
The so-called value is that it will be readable for at least the next 15 years. "Short and fast" things may become a passing cloud after a year or two. Fruit and wheat are cultural, and the greatest value is to be able to leave traces and pass on valuable things.
Then there is "beauty". The process of making a book in Guomai must be extreme from the design, materials, and binding aspects, and do not care how high the cost is.
In fact, this is a bold decision in China, where books are generally not priced high. In the past, many publications in China, from the internal text to the design, were relatively rough in all aspects, and there was a gap compared with foreign high-quality publications. But now, I can say with great confidence that the books published by Guomai are not weaker than those published by any publishing house in the world.
Finance Afternoon Tea: When did you understand that "value and beauty" can improve the entire grade of a book?
Qu Hongbin: It was probably the years when Guomai was established. In fact, before Guomai was founded, our team made a lot of mistakes in the publishing industry. Including the chasing of the wind just mentioned, guessing what things may be liked by everyone now, they will consider publishing such a book. But we eventually found that without a cultural goal of our own, we would never get the point.
Therefore, when Guomai was established, it laid a cornerstone, and Guomai must publish things with cultural inheritance value. Specifically, it can be circulated for at least 15 years.
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Look for him a thousand times, love on the heart
Qu Hongbin: The first is "The Little Prince", which is a public edition book. The so-called public book is a book that the author has been dead for more than 50 years, and everyone can publish it.
When Guomai published The Little Prince, there were at least 500 versions on the market. But the level of translation in the popular version on the market is very average. Guo Mai has the impulse and responsibility to produce a real "The Little Prince", whether it is the standard of translation, or the literary color, and the profound introduction to the book, combining these three is what Guo Mai wants.
So we found the translator of the best-selling book "The Kite Chaser" and asked him to translate "The Little Prince". It's not a whim, but we've seen his translations and found him to be the person we're looking for.
In 2010, Lu Jinbo and I went to Tokyo to visit a Japanese publishing house and bought a best-selling book at Pudong Airport, "The Kite Chaser.". In these few days in Tokyo, we were both fascinated by the story and text of the book, and we didn't go anywhere, except for working during the day, and reading books at night. After reading it, I concluded that at least the highest level of young translators we have seen now.
Later, we got in touch with him. Not only is he good at English and good at translation, but he also analyzes his works even better than many literary critics. Therefore, Guomai's "The Little Prince" has a good guide, and anyone who does not know what philosophical concept "The Little Prince" is going to talk about will be clear after reading the guide.
At that time, the price of "The Little Prince" of other companies was less than 20 yuan, and even less than 10 yuan, while the price of Guomai was 32 yuan hardcover version. As expected, Guomai's "The Little Prince" completely defeated the other versions in less than three months, becoming the first best-selling version on the market. At the same time, it also attracted the attention of the French author Saint-Exupéry Family Foundation.
Since the Foundation greatly appreciated the Guomai version of "The Little Prince", I went to Lyon, France, with the translator, and held a signing ceremony at the author's former residence, and the Foundation took the "Little Prince" published and translated by Guomai as the only recognized simplified version of the Chinese.
So far, the sales of "The Little Prince" have approached 5 million copies, and it is currently the first place in the publication of Guomai, and there are not many other versions on the market that can reach 100,000 copies. If you review it, it is the pursuit of value and beauty, the pursuit of the quality and accuracy of translation, the pursuit of the depth of the analysis of works, and the pursuit of presenting them in the most beautiful way.
The myth created by "The Little Prince" is not accidental, it is an inevitable result.
The second-ranked book in Guomai is Skin Bags. If the book had been considered purely from a market perspective, it would not have been published at that time.
Because "Skin Bag" is a pure literary essay, the author Cai Chongda is a native of Quanzhou, and the content of the book is about his attachment to his relatives, friends and hometown. The market sales of pure literary books in recent years have been very poor, but at that time, we decided to publish this book even if we lost money, and there were many very touching forces in it, and this touching power was straight to the heart, and it could even make people cry.
So at that time, we insisted that "Skin Bag" was valuable, from the perspective of the market, its storytelling was not so strong, and there was not a lot of exciting storyline, but it saw the truth in the plain, and created a power that went deep into the bone marrow in the plain. So we published it as a key book, and the effort paid off, and eventually the current sales were close to 4.5 million copies, which is a miracle of the industry.
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In front of the publication is the "four seas"
Financial Afternoon Tea: In the three quarterly reports of Guomai, the business of cultural publishing accounts for a relatively large proportion, and the Internet business currently accounts for only about 10%, how to plan the next direction?
Qu Hongbin: Internet business is an important strategic direction of Guomai. The traditional publishing industry is the To B model, which is to send books to channels such as Dangdang, JD.com, Tmall and Xinhua Bookstore, which sell them to consumers. And now because of the Internet matrix, with so many new media, Guomai has established a direct relationship with users. Guomai has begun to put the first wave of traffic on the private domain traffic, selling books directly to consumers. Therefore, in the future, Guomai will be a "To C" plus "To B" business model.
Creating your own private domain traffic, while making full use of other people's private domain traffic and maximizing the use of public domain traffic, is one of the most important working methods of Guomai. It is more gratifying that Guomai has established more than 60 million Internet users, laying a solid foundation for a series of future promotion activities.
Finance Afternoon Tea: Is there any other way to increase performance or profits besides publishing?
Qu Hongbin: Publishing is the way when Guomai came from, but it is also the cornerstone of all-round development in the future.
One of the biggest resources that publishing brings to Guomai is copyright resources, that is, IP. In the future, Guomai will not only be satisfied with the publication of paper books and e-books, but also extend to other fields.
The first is film and television. In fact, Guomai has now made 4 movies, and the fifth "Four Seas" will be released on the first day of the Chinese New Year. However, the premise is that guomai is adapted into a film and television work, and the IP must come from guomai, or the writer must come from guomai.
Therefore, film and television, stage dramas, audiobooks, cultural and creative supplies, these are the new business types that Guomai will expand in the future, and the market potential is quite huge. Of course, it is still necessary to keep in mind the belief that the source of copyright comes from fruit and wheat. Do not touch anything that has nothing to do with fruit and wheat, otherwise the failure rate is too high. Guomai knows the audience very well, so when it comes to converting into film and television products, we are confident that at least 50% of these readers will be converted into audiences.
Financial Afternoon Tea: Guomai signed a lot of famous writers, including Teacher Yi Zhongtian, Han Han, etc., but there are not many young writers among them, and the influence is not strong enough.
Qu Hongbin: This is an objective situation, and there are relatively few new writers. Everyone said that after the 80s, there are Han Han, Guo Jingming, Cai Chongda, Zhang Yueran, this batch, and there are very few after 90. Because of the development of mobile terminals, everyone's time is fragmented, and writing is also fragmented. Therefore, there are not many young writers who are more mature in terms of writing level. But I don't think there's any need to be anxious, because time will make this part of the people pop up.
If an author is naïve in his 20s, but he loves to write, he will be able to stand out by the time he is 30. Therefore, Guomai will not deliberately pursue, or cultivate a few young post-00s and post-95 writers.
Writing is sometimes talented, and we pay attention to these people. When they show their talent for writing and can truly influence contemporary people, we will not hesitate to cooperate with them in depth.
Financial Afternoon Tea: If an author is favored by many companies in the publishing industry, where is the competitive advantage of Guomai compared to other companies?
Qu Hongbin: The competitive advantage of fruit and wheat is one, word of mouth. Guomai will not bid, and who pays more.
Even if the first fight is not successful, you can look to the future. So there are writers that we've been in touch with a long time ago, but it's only been a year or two since we've actually collaborated. The other side fully understands us, and we also fully understand each other, so that the two sides can cooperate more tacitly.
Of course, there are also some undesirable phenomena in the industry, such as crazy bidding at any cost, and guomai will not participate. Guomai relies on providing value-added services for the author, planning for the author, and thinking of places that the author cannot imagine.
Once the author publishes the book in the fruit wheat, we can maximize his interests in all aspects. Books are sold to the maximum, and can be adapted into films, television, and stage plays; in addition to paper books, e-books and audiobooks also have huge sales, and can even be developed in other directions. The competition that Guomai faces is fierce, but it doesn't care about a year or two.
In fact, Guomai is the publishing company with the largest team of famous writers in China.
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Culture a tree
Financial Afternoon Tea: In the process of growing up, there have also been confusions, how did you lead the team out of the ups and downs and find the direction?
Qu Hongbin: I think the greatest credit should go to Lu Zong. In the year before the establishment of Guomai, we made a lot of mistakes, made a lot of mistakes in the product, at this time we would rather put down all the work at hand and just learn. The first is to read books, which everyone reads collectively, both literary books and management books, find spiritual strength and methodology from books, and summarize some successful cases of our competitors or companies in the same industry. Therefore, after about a year of study, we have summarized a set of working methods suitable for fruit and wheat.
The most important thing is to calm down and think and learn, not to rush to do some major actions when confused, only by thinking about everything well and thinking mature, can you unswervingly follow your own direction.
In the first three years of the establishment of Guomai, there were very few products made every year, and more could have been done, in order to make each product create the ultimate through the internal operation of Guomai. Only when we have a certain amount of internal strength, we do scale.
Financial Afternoon Tea: Cultural publishing is a relatively focused track, do you want Guomai to be a "small and beautiful" in the subdivision track in the future, or do you want to become a "giant" with a larger territory?
Qu Hongbin: We also want to have a bigger territory, but we have been suppressing our ambition to expand, all in order to lay a good foundation and make preparations for one day explosive development.
Although Guomai is a company that started out with literary works, when it comes to developing and growing, it cannot be limited to literature. In cooperation with Teacher Yi Zhongtian, Guomai entered the history book section; in cooperation with Teacher Yang Hongying, Guomai entered the children's book section; Teacher Luo Xiang successfully popularized legal knowledge, we hit it off, carried out very good cooperation, and book publishing has also obtained very good benefits.
Fruit and wheat may not be touched except for the fields of life, textbooks, teaching aids and pure natural sciences, and others are feasible. Literature is the foundation of fruit wheat, but it should not only stay in literature, but should be comprehensively developed, so that it is a colorful publishing company.
Guomai's goal is first and foremost to achieve an achievement similar to that of the American publishing company Penguin Random. Then cross-field, cross-industry, cross-media, and eventually become a cultural entertainment group. On that day, it can be said that it has a certain "giant" quality.
It's not just a casual imagination, everything Guomai is doing now is preparing for this. I think that within 10 years at the earliest, Guomai will definitely become a large cultural and mutual entertainment group.