Written by/Reporter Zhao Tianyu Photo Editor/Chen Yongjie
New Media Editor/Lai Tianying
Nearly two months after the "lack of core" supply, Kindle's sales in official channels are still in a state of total shortage.
At the end of last year, the e-reader Kindle closed the Tmall flagship store, and from the beginning of 2022, the Jingdong Mall flagship store was almost completely out of stock. Now 2 months have passed, the reporter's investigation found that the Kindle is still in the so-called "out of stock" state, and the explanation given by customer service is still "chip shortage", which almost confirms the "rumors" of Kindle's withdrawal from the Chinese market from the side.
▲With the development of mobile Internet, digital reading is already the trend of the times (Source: Visual China)
From entering the Chinese market in 2013 to today's dismal departure, this electronic product that has played an important role in the digital reading industry has completely degenerated from a "reading artifact" to a "bubble noodle artifact", and has also interpreted an intriguing "cool apocalypse" to the market.
From the reader "Ceiling"
To "Cover Instant Noodles"
"It sold for $399 and sold out in 6 hours." In 2007, Amazon launched its first Kindle e-book reader, which quickly made waves. Amazon has also transformed itself into the world's largest book retailer.
In June 2013, the Kindle entered the Chinese market, and the hardware strategy of selling at a low price or even at a loss made it take only 3 years, and by 2016, China had become the largest market for global sales. By 2018, the Kindle had sold millions of units in China. Correspondingly, the total number of books in the Kindle China Electronic Bookstore is also close to 700,000, an increase of nearly 10 times over 2013, reaching a record high. But the so-called "success is also Xiao He defeated Xiao He". Also from 2018, the aura of the Kindle began to gradually fade, not only did the enthusiasm of users who did not buy declined, but consumers who had already purchased the product were also rapidly abandoning the product. According to the data of the second-hand trading platform Idle Fish, from August 2019 to August 2020, Idle Fish traded more than 400,000 Kindle readers, with an average monthly average of more than 30,000 units, and the average transaction price was only 356 yuan. Many netizens said: I thought that I bought a Kindle, I could become a generation of literary heroes, but I found that the use of kindle is really much! Can be used to cover instant noodles, as a mouse pad, to shoot flies... It is not used to read. Therefore, the Kindle has the title of "bubble noodle artifact", which fully reflects today's embarrassing situation. Even Amazon's official ads began to blackmail themselves, mocking themselves with "Kindle cover noodles" to save the increasingly dismal sales.
▲ Kindle was jokingly called "bubble noodle artifact" by netizens (Image source: Visual China)
What many people don't know is that both the first Kindle and the first iPhone were born in 2007. From the perspective of product design, these two products also have many similarities - both are innovative products in the sub-Internet era, both shoulder the ambition and vision of the founder to subvert the industry, and the most core concept is the pursuit of extreme and minimalism.
▲Kindle has been out of stock (Image source: Zhao Tianyu)
15 years later, the iPhone that was also "born" in 2007 has been updated to the 13th generation of products, but the Kindle's road has become narrower and narrower, watching the iPhone become "someone else's child". As early as 2019, Kindle's parent company, Amazon E-commerce, officially announced its withdrawal from the Chinese market. Amazon, together with JD.com and Dangdang.com, was the earliest platform in China to carry out e-commerce retail, but it "got up early and caught up late".
Today's kindle situation has become a replica of Amazon, which not only verifies that the "foreign monk" is not good at chanting, but also shows the success or failure of consumer electronic technology products.
"Old man trapped in time"
Why is the once all-popular Kindle "not fragrant"? In fact, this is related to changes in the external environment and the decline in their own product strength.
The first is the rise of competitors, with the improvement of the domestic Internet ecology, there are new players to join the field of digital reading, Millet, Wenshi, Palm Reading, iFLYTEK and other manufacturers have also entered the game, combined with the content ecology, launched their own readers, and gave consumers a very competitive price, and this time node is exactly 2018.
▲ Xiaomi read more e-books to become a big enemy of the Kindle (image source: Xiaomi official website)
Secondly, with the improvement of the functions of smart phones and tablets, the fungibility of the Kindle is also getting stronger and stronger. Many reading apps have appeared, such as WeChat Reading, NetEase Snail Reading, Douban Reading, etc., allowing users to read books anytime and anywhere through mobile phones, tablets, etc. According to the National Reading Survey of the China Press and Publication Research Institute, in 2018, 20.8% of adult citizens read on e-readers, while in 2020, only 8.6% of citizens used e-readers.
▲ According to the National Reading Survey of the China Press and Publication Research Institute, only 8.6% of the nationals will use e-readers in 2020 (Source: "China Press and Publication Research Institute National Reading Survey Report")
When domestic competitors continue to exert efforts in hardware conditions such as high-definition ink screens, print-grade perceptions, strong endurance, large memory, cold and warm two-color and UI design, kindle seems to be still immersed in "reading experience comparable to paper books". For more than a decade, only small repairs have been made in machine materials, reading lights, processors, etc., which can hardly improve the use experience.
Many problems that really affect the user experience have not been solved: for example, the page turning is obviously stuttered, the reading speed is too slow, the ink screen is easy to bump and damage, only the black and white screen color rendering effect is supported, and the color picture book cannot be rendered... No wonder industry insiders point out that the Kindle is "like an old man trapped in time, lackluster in innovation." ”
▲ Kindle is still immersed in the "reading experience comparable to paper books" and can't extricate himself (Source: Visual China)
But the so-called "skinny camel is bigger than the horse", by 2020, Kindle still occupies about 60% of the domestic e-paper book market share (80% in 2018), the Jingdong platform high-end version has an evaluation of 100,000 +, the low-end version also has an evaluation of 50,000+, almost 10-20 times the same price of competitors. Therefore, Kindle's unique closed-loop ecological model is the most deadly link and the last straw that crushes it. As we all know, the price of the first generation of Kindle is as high as 2500 yuan, and since then the pricing has decreased year by year, and by 2020, the price of the domestic main product has dropped to 600-1000 yuan, which has approached the cost. Because Amazon does not want to make a profit by selling Kindle devices at all, but hopes that users will continue to buy e-books in the Kindle mall after starting at a low price and integrate into Amazon's book ecology. But Amazon has clearly misjudged the domestic situation, and in China, the pirated resources at their fingertips make people generally reluctant to spend money on genuine e-books. On the Internet, there are even people who rely on book cracking and resale pirated copies to make profits, and the original price of 10 yuan and 20 yuan of e-books only need to spend 1 yuan and 2 yuan to obtain, which makes Amazon's e-book business face a complete collapse in China.
After the Kindle,
Digital reading has a bright future
According to media reports, amazon China's Kindle hardware team was laid off last November. The Kindle China business group has all been dismissed by Amazon, and the e-book store will be closed at the same time in the future, "it is recommended that users back up their relevant data."
But intriguingly, Kindle has always insisted that the shortage of goods is caused by a shortage of chips, and said that the Kindle will continue to sell in the Chinese market, and the corresponding services will continue to operate.
However, many people have "believed" in the rumors that the Kindle has withdrawn from China. Xiang Ligang, an expert in the Internet communication industry, believes that from various indications, Kindle's withdrawal from the Chinese market has become a foregone conclusion, because the product can be purchased at a third-party service provider, but the official channel is out of stock because of the lack of chips, which is not very common sense.
Kindle's most popular selling point is the electronic ink screen, this product has the advantages of power saving, eye protection, but in the big environment, users have to bring a special equipment to use, it is not very convenient, and now the people who specialize in reading are already a niche group, so the market pattern of the Kindle is quite limited.
"The biggest problem for foreign companies operating in China is that the cost is higher and the efficiency is relatively low, for kindle, in the face of many enterprises in China, constantly updated products, it is a bit old, it is better to shrink and reduce their operating costs." Of course, the product will still be sold and can be operated by a third party, which may be better returned in business. Xiang Ligang said.
In fact, the situation of Amazon and kindle is not unique. In recent years, overseas technology companies, including Whirlpool, LG, and Oracle, have encountered unsatisfactory water and soil in China, unable to adapt to the huge demand and changing market environment, and have had to reduce their business in China, or even withdraw from the Chinese market.
But in contrast to The Kindle's eclipse, the domestic digital reading market is showing a thriving scene: the data shows that the scale of Digital Reading users in China in 2020 is 494 million, an increase of 5.56% year-on-year; the overall size of the digital reading industry market is 35.16 billion, with a growth rate of 21.8%. The digital reading market is expected to reach 45.3 billion in 2022, showing great potential.
▲ After the Kindle, the digital reading market has broad prospects (Source: Visual China)
Focusing on product innovation and composite functions, many domestic manufacturers have begun to expand the function of e-readers, and even built-in third-party applications to develop in the direction of intelligent terminals, which not only fills the gap after the Withdrawal of Kindle, but also meets the different needs of different users.
"Digital reading itself can stretch out a huge industry." Zhang Yi, CEO of Ai Media Consulting, said that with the e-reader as the entrance, behind it is a whole ecological chain, which can even be extended to the fields of film and television, games and even IP parks. Don't dismiss the entire digital reading industry because of the Kindle's failure in the Chinese market, which is still full of great possibilities.
Producer: Popular Science Central Kitchen
Producer: Beijing Science and Technology News | Beike Media
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