April 23 is the 27th "World Book Day", and the JD Consumer and Industrial Development Research Institute released the "2022 Reading Report". Through the analysis of the changes in book consumption in recent years, the report sorts out the characteristics of Chinese reading in 2022, such as the age difference of reading habits is disappearing, but there are still other solidified factors; the enthusiasm for traditional Chinese studies is gradually returning to its more authentic value of life.
Age can "cross the border", but the profession limits you
Since the outbreak of COVID-19 in 2020, everyone's life has changed to a greater or lesser extent, including reading.
It is a trend for ordinary readers to increasingly think about their own development with the development of the country and society as a whole. Judging from the sales situation of JD.com, books on society, country, history and culture have received more and more attention.
From the perspective of classification, the books with faster turnover growth in 2021 mainly have the following categories:
The first is to think about and respond to the unprecedented changes in the world in a hundred years, such as political/military books such as Jin Yinan's "Why China";
The second is skills, such as examinations, electronic communications, industrial technology, economics, etc.;
The third is the improvement of self-cultivation or cognition, such as art, marriage, beauty, youth literature, etc.
From the perspective of age distribution, people under the age of 35 are still the main force of reading, accounting for more than 50%, but the proportion of people in the age group of 36-45 years old has increased rapidly.
Readers of this age group, with higher education and stable families, they buy the most dispersed categories of books, but also in the fresh, food, daily hundred and other categories of consumption accounted for a relatively high proportion, is a mature Internet retail users, accustomed to online consumption of all categories, but also consumption upgrades, enjoy life, promote the main population of market quality and expansion.
Previous common sense generally believed that the purpose of reading books at different age levels was also different. People under the age of 35 are more "utilitarian" in reading; middle-aged people aged 36-45 are mostly reading to solve the confusion and troubles encountered at the moment; and people over 45 years old enjoy the fun of knowledge more.
However, there have been many "cross-border" changes in the situation in 2021, such as young people who are not so fond of inspiration, but pay attention to carbon neutrality; middle-aged people who like "The World of Man" while learning the metaverse.
From the perspective of occupational distribution, civil servants, workers/service workers, and corporate white-collar workers are the fastest growing groups of people. Previous survey reports showed that more than 70% of professionals read for career development.
If books are generally divided into study categories (examinations, teaching aids, foreign languages, dictionaries, etc.), leisure categories (novels, photography, paintings, etc.) and professional categories (finance, law, management, and various science books, etc.), civil servants, white-collar workers/staff and students will buy more learning books in 2021, while the turnover growth of workers/service workers will be basically the opposite trend of professionals such as financial personnel.
Therefore, it can be found that the stratification of reading brought by age differences is disappearing, but occupations are to some extent a "watershed" for different reading habits.
In fact, the difference between the city/village in which you are located will also bring certain differentiation to the reading habit.
The leap across the chasm may come from the book in your hand
From the perspective of line-level distribution, high-tier (1-2 tier) cities still have an advantage in the amount of book purchase investment, while the sinking market (5-6 line) has grown rapidly in recent years, accounting for a higher proportion than that of middle-tier cities (3-4 lines).
However, if you look at the type of reading, there is still a big gap in reading habits between the high/low lines. As can be seen in the following figure, the proportion of primary and secondary school teaching aids purchased in the sinking market is much higher than that of first-tier large cities, but the proportion of teaching aids in colleges and secondary schools is significantly lower than the latter.
Low-line users are more inclined to buy "practical books" such as examinations, agriculture and forestry, as well as children's books, novels, leisure and entertainment, sports and fitness, while high-line users are leading in management, economy, art, imports, IT technology and other categories.
On the one hand, this shows that compared with the residents of large cities with intense work and fast pace, people in the vast sinking market have more time to devote to leisure, entertainment, parent-child, reading novels and other projects, and their lives are more comfortable; on the other hand, it also shows the difference in the choice of high and low line users in the face of spiritual needs.
From the perspective of concentration, the categories of books purchased in the sinking market are more concentrated, and the turnover of children's books, primary and secondary school teaching aids, and examination books accounts for 44%, which is 30% higher than that of first-tier cities (TGI); while the categories of books read in the high-line market are scattered. The following figure shows the comparison of book purchase structures in different line markets. Overall, the sinking market is more volatile, indicating that its preference is more concentrated, that is, a certain type of book consumes a lot, and some types of books consume very little.
It is worth noting, however, that some of the gaps between the two are getting smaller. Comparing the changes in the proportion of 2021 and 2020 in the chart below, it can be seen that the proportion of primary and secondary school teaching aids purchased in the low-tier market has decreased significantly. The proportion of natural and social science books has increased rapidly, while the proportion of books in economics, history, foreign languages, IT, politics/military and other categories has increased; and the increase in the unit price of customers shows that users in the sinking market are also increasingly inclined to buy "tomes", high-quality, valuable books.
With the expansion of consumer vision, as well as the sinking of Jingdong Logistics, more and more genuine books can reach the sinking market, and users in the sinking market can enjoy the same preferential treatment and logistics speed, so some niche books and professional books that were not easy to buy are now easily available in the low-line market, gradually flattening the proportion of turnover in various line-level cities.
It should be pointed out that although the growth rate of literature and fiction books has slowed down, it still has the most cross-age and cross-regional value. Especially in these two years, perhaps a story of ups and downs, a "useless" but beautiful poem, and a warm word can give people healing and ripples in their hearts in this special period.
The people's demand for spiritual culture is very strong
Directed by Li Lu and adapted from Liang Xiaosheng's "Mao Dun Literature Award" award-winning novel of the same name, the realistic drama "The World of Man", takes the life trajectory of Zhou Bingkun, a commoner's son, as a clue, showing the development and changes of Chinese society in the past fifty years, triggering readers to have a deep resonance with the "glory and dream" of China's social development and the difficulties and complexities of the process of reform and opening up. The drama also brought fire to the sales of the original after the CCTV hit, and the sales in a single month in February reached 18 times that of January. Compared with the whole station, book buyers have a higher level of education, of which university (college, undergraduate) degree accounts for 66.2%.
As the People's Daily pointed out, this is a "literary and artistic masterpiece that is both ideological, artistic and ornamental." Good works have certain requirements for readers' aesthetic and appreciation ability, and will also effectively improve the public's ability to read and understand life.
It can be seen from the above figure that in the second-tier cities and the sinking market, the proportion of readers with high school and college degrees exceeds the proportion in the first-tier cities, while the proportion of high-educated (graduate students) in the first-tier cities is the highest; it shows that in the vast sinking market, the people's demand for excellent literary and artistic works and spiritual culture is very urgent.
Some readers left a message on JD.com after purchasing books: Information fragmentation brings us too much anxiety and uneasiness, and good books with broad vision and humanistic depth can make us look at the world with a more stable perspective and gaze. Reading makes us more calm and tenacious; reading makes our vision more open when we are facing the days to come.