Paper books "break into" the live broadcast room, and the physical bookstore is close to "dusk"?

April 23, 2024 is the 29th "World Book Day" determined by UNESCO, and various reading activities will be held in many places in the province to welcome the arrival of Book Day. According to the survey results released by the National Reading Department of the Propaganda Department of the Jiangsu Provincial Party Committee, the comprehensive reading rate of residents in our province will reach 90.34% in 2023, an increase of 0.01% year-on-year, and the proportion of residents reading for more than 1 hour per day will be 62.62%, an increase of 1.61% year-on-year.

Thanks to the steady increase in the comprehensive reading rate of the majority of residents, many listed book companies have achieved good results in 2023, and some book companies have paid dividends again. However, book sales channels are undergoing earth-shaking changes, with livestreaming platforms squeezing traditional brick-and-mortar bookstores and e-commerce platforms to become the "main force" of book retail. For industry insiders, live streaming provides a new growth point for the industry, and also allows more high-quality books and niche books to reach more readers, but the extremely low book prices in the live broadcast room have had an impact on the industry ecological chain and exacerbated the predicament of the book publishing industry.

The industry is warming, and listed book companies are paying dividends

On April 19, the 2023 annual performance report released by Shandong Publishing showed that the company achieved operating income of 12.154 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 8.23%, and the net profit attributable to the parent company was 2.376 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 41.12%. The day before, the 2023 annual report released by Wanxin Media showed that the company achieved operating income of 11.244 billion yuan and net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies of 936 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 32.21%. Wanxin Media said that it will continue to increase dividends, and plans to distribute cash dividends of 3.05 yuan (tax included) to all shareholders for every 10 shares, with a total cash dividend of 597 million yuan, accounting for 68.90% of the net profit attributable to the parent company that year.

Earlier, the performance express report released by Phoenix Media, the largest publishing group in our province, showed that in 2023, the company will achieve operating income of 13,650,513,300 yuan, a year-on-year increase of 0.40%, and net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies of 2,955,802,000 yuan, a year-on-year increase of 41.98%. In the face of good performance, the controlling shareholder of Phoenix Media proposed to distribute a cash dividend of 5.00 yuan (tax included) to all shareholders for every 10 shares in 2023, and within 12 months, Phoenix Group will not reduce its holdings of the company's shares in any way.

In the eyes of industry insiders, the accelerated recovery of the book publishing market lies in the fact that live broadcast e-commerce has brought more new and good books to a broader readership. On March 26, writer Mai Jia brought his new masterpiece "Letter in the World" to the live broadcast room of "Walking with Hui", which was watched by more than 250,000 people online at the same time, and the book sold a total of 68,000 copies during the live broadcast. "It's shocking that there is no bookstore in the country that can sell so many books in a short period of time. Wei Yang, head of a bookstore in Nanjing, said that live-streaming e-commerce is reshaping the book retail market.

According to data released by Beijing Open Book Information Technology Co., Ltd., the scale of China's book retail market will be 91.2 billion yuan in 2023, an increase of 4.72% year-on-year, and short video e-commerce has become the second largest book sales channel. According to Douyin e-commerce data, in the first quarter of 2024, the platform's short video of book trailer will be played more than 21.6 billion times, and the live broadcast of books with goods will be viewed more than 3.9 billion times, and the interconnection of high-quality content and shelf e-commerce will drive more than 150 million book sales on the platform, with an average of more than 2 million books sold per day. Ai Limin, chairman of the China Book Publishing Industry Association, said that the e-commerce platform and the publishing and distribution industry have strengthened the basic market of book readers and promoted the development of the publishing industry to a warm and new level.

Mixed reception, live broadcast breaks down the industry's floor price

Since 2021, book sales have been "moved" into the live broadcast room and become a new category with goods. Three years on, live-streaming e-commerce has become an important channel in the book retail industry, but the controversy surrounding it has never stopped. "Either 9.9 yuan free shipping or 4% off the whole site, live e-commerce has broken through the industry's bottom price. Publishing practitioner He Yugu said that the price of 9.9 yuan can not even cover the cost of paper printing, not to mention the author's manuscript fee, editing manpower, art design, warehousing and logistics and many other links, which is completely "losing money and making money".

According to a live bookseller, if the live broadcast e-commerce wants to beat the traditional book-selling e-commerce platforms such as Jingdong, Dangdang, and Taobao, it can only rely on low prices, so there is a saying in the industry that "no huge discount does not ship", "The discount for selling a book in the outlet channel is generally about 6% off, and we will try our best to hit around 4% off, such as children's books and tutoring materials can even be as low as 3% off." "The sales effect brought by this ultra-low price is self-evident. He Yugu complained: "I sold the book in the live broadcast room, but it didn't bring real profits." In the long run, not only will the enthusiasm of publishers and booksellers be hit, but readers will also take 'low-cost books' for granted, further compressing the already grim living space of the book industry. ”

However, more practitioners believe that live streaming of books is the trend of the times, and it is better to follow the trend. Ai Limin said that the e-commerce platform has strengthened the basic market of book readers and promoted the development of the publishing industry. He believes that with the popularization of digital technology and the rapid development of e-commerce platforms, profound changes have taken place in the way authors create, the way content is produced in the publishing industry, and the reading methods and habits of readers.

Wang Jiaqing is a traditional bookseller who turned to the live broadcast room. She said: "I now live stream for two or three hours a day, facing consumers directly, not only can I really understand their needs, but I can also discuss a good book with everyone in the live broadcast room, and I enjoy the process." Wang Jiaqing disagrees with the low price problem that is generally worried in the industry, "There are only a few low-cost books that attract traffic, and most of the books still have profit margins, and overall, the situation is much better than before." ”

A heavy blow to the accelerated collapse of the physical store

While the live broadcast room has changed the pattern of online book sales, it has also squeezed offline physical bookstores more than traditional e-commerce platforms. According to open-book statistics, in the first three quarters of 2023, the retail book market of physical bookstores decreased by 22.56% year-on-year, although the decline was narrower than that in the first quarter and the first half of the year, it still decreased by more than 60% compared with the same period in 2019.

Live streaming seems to be more able to bring readers closer to each other. "When I have nothing to do, I will watch the book anchors in the live broadcast room, and through their introductions, I can understand the general content of the book in a very short time, and then decide whether to buy it or not. Moreover, some of the anchors are very knowledgeable and can discuss relevant knowledge well, which is not available in physical bookstores and JD Books. Consumer Du Ning told reporters that she has not bought books in physical bookstores for about two years, and rarely buys books on traditional e-commerce platforms, and the live broadcast room has become the largest source of books for her.

In the face of the impact of the live broadcast room, the physical bookstore has started a new round of difficult transformation. Leading brick-and-mortar bookstores, such as Pioneer Bookstore, Zhongshuge, and Tsutaya Bookstore, have transformed into Internet celebrities, and through cooperation with tourist attractions and large shopping malls, they have attracted young people to plant grass and check in, and made profits by selling cultural and creative products, coffee and other products. However, this path of influencer development has not saved the precarious brick-and-mortar bookstore. In the Duoyun Academy in the Guangfulin Cultural Site in Songjiang District, Shanghai, the reporter made an observation for about two hours, and most of the people who came and went into the store came to check in and take pictures, and only a dozen people consumed, and most of them bought coffee and cultural and creative products, and only one consumer bought books. According to a survey circulated among practitioners, only about 300 of the 1,130 stores of 23 chain brand bookstores were profitable, accounting for only 26%.

Compared with chain bookstores, small and medium-sized bookstores have a harder time, and many have become grocery stores. Next to a key middle school in Taixing City, Mr. Zhou runs a small bookstore, with some supplementary books and magazines such as Youth Digest and Yilin in the small storefront, and other categories of books have disappeared and have been replaced by snacks and drinks, stationery and express delivery. "The income from selling books alone is too small, so we can only develop more business. Mr. Zhou told reporters, "I have been doing this business for more than 30 years, and I miss the days when students gathered in the store to read books." Now they even bought the teaching aids in the live broadcast room, where will they come to the store?!"

Jiangsu Economic News reporter Fan Jun