At the beginning of the outbreak last year, a photo flowed out of a cabin hospital in a certain place and quickly became popular. In a noisy environment, a young man looked intently at the book as if the whole world had come to a standstill, unaffected by external emotions.
Netizens jokingly called the young man "Qingliu Brother". Someone commented, "I see the hope of a city in a man." Another commented: "He's not just reading a book, he's seeing another state of life, another mood, another world... It is also a blessing and happiness to be able to calm down and read. ”
Why read? What is the use of reading? Historical celebrities from all over the world have shared their views, and different people have different answers. In His book, "Reading is a Refuge to Carry With You," Maugham writes, "To develop the habit of reading is to create for yourself a refuge from almost all the sorrows of life." “
In 2021, when the mobile Internet is almost pervasively eroding modern people's lives, Chinese adults have spent more than 3 hours a day looking at mobile phones, the online time of the short video industry exceeds that of instant messaging, occupying the first place in mobile Internet traffic, the daily life of the head short video App exceeds 600 million, and the per capita daily use time exceeds 140 minutes.
On October 21, Beijing Normal University released the "2021 New Youth Reading Report", showing that young people's reading interest has not decreased but increased, and reading is not purely utilitarian. The trend of rejuvenation of book consumers is obvious. In the first half of 2021, the proportion of new youth groups in the number of book consumers increased to 18.1%.
01 Chinese New Youth Reading Atlas
In the past, in many discussions about the reading habits of people in various countries, we can often read a set of data that can spur the people of the country: the average Israeli national reads 60 books, the Japanese are 40, france also has dozens, China usually has only a few books, and some people do not even read 1 book a year.
In terms of the number of paper books per capita per capita, China does have huge room for improvement. But it is gratifying that the number of young people reading every year is on the rise. The report shows that the average national reading of paper books is about 4.7, and the average reading of paper books after 95 is 5.3, an increase over 2019. Previously, in 2020, the average national read about 4.7 paper books, of which 5.3 were read per capita after 95. In terms of the number of purchases, among the people who buy more than 8 books per year, the proportion of new youth groups is also the highest, reaching 43.4%.
Book consumption is only an indirect indicator of the reading situation on the side, in order to get closer to understanding the reading behavior of the people, in addition to the number of books read each year, it is also necessary to understand the per capita reading time. According to the report, the average weekly reading time of the new youth group is 2.5 hours, compared to about 2.3 hours in 2019. New young people in different regions also have different reading time. Among them, the average weekly reading time of new young people in first-tier cities is more than 0.5 hours of reading time of young people in third- and fourth-tier cities. In other words, new youth in first-tier cities read 30 minutes more books per week than new youth in third- and fourth-tier cities. But it is gratifying that the growth rate of reading time of new young people in third- and fourth-tier cities is 24% higher than that in first-tier cities. This means that the reading market in third- and fourth-tier cities will have broad room for development in the future.
In addition to geography, gender is also an influencing factor. According to relevant report data, the per capita book consumption of new male young people is about 48.9 yuan, which is higher than that of female users, but in recent years, female consumption users of books are growing significantly. At the same time, women's reading is gradually becoming "hardcore". Relevant data show that the proportion of female users buying professional books such as economic management, law, psychology, and machine learning has increased, and books such as "Liquid Rocket Engine Thrust Room Design" have also become bestsellers. The monthly list of the second season of "More Reading Month" shows that feminist books such as "Life is By Me", "One Step Forward" and "Know My Name" are very popular.
For new young people in different industries, the direction of book purchase also has different considerations. The new youth groups engaged in the financial and Internet industries mainly focus on three types of books such as inspiration and success, management, and examinations, aiming to continuously "recharge" themselves; while the freelance new youth groups buy books more concentrated in novels, literature and other categories, and the demand for "reading and enjoying life" is stronger, and the pursuit of a richer spiritual world.
In addition, the reading activities launched by the e-commerce platform have also promoted more and more young people to devote themselves to reading. Compared with the large-scale knowledge inclusion action launched by Pinduoduo, "Duoduo Reading Month", literary books entered the forefront of the reading list. Liu Mengda, a junior majoring in finance and accounting at a university in Nanjing, spent most of his spare time reading novels such as "Gone with the Wind", "To Kill a Mockingbird", and "Marco Waldo". In the "More Reading Month", after the tens of billions of subsidies and the reading fund, she bought "The Lost Satellite" at a price of nearly 20%.
02 The C2M model of books promotes the inclusion of knowledge
There is Yan Ruyu in the book, and there is a house of gold in the book. Some scholars have found that the reading ability of young people directly determines the strength of their creativity and also affects the future of the country and the nation. The more young individuals who prefer to read political, economic, social, scientific, technological, cutting-edge topics, poetry and prose, and content related to disciplines, the more likely they are to have a higher level of creativity in the long run.
Because of this, allowing young people, especially young people in rural remote areas, to develop reading habits plays a vital role in China's transformation from high-speed economic development to high-quality economic development.
Young people develop the habit of long-term reading, not only need to recognize the importance of reading and knowledge, but also inseparable from the country's top-down call and guidance, the improvement of the infrastructure of the book industry, and the promotion of relevant forces in the book industry.
The report of the Nineteenth National Congress discussed cultural poverty alleviation from the spiritual and ideological levels, believing that it is necessary to accurately identify the targets of cultural poverty alleviation, combine the lack of regional culture, and achieve poverty alleviation at the cultural level through cultural docking, reading promotion and accurate management.
According to the "2020 More Reading Report", in 2020, the number of book spells from the three districts of the former three states increased by 182%, thanks to the smooth flow of logistics in the last kilometer and the convenience of mobile payment, the "strong convection" of books and knowledge products provided a bridge for more people to expand the spiritual world.
Most of the new youth groups belong to the "Internet natives", for e-commerce platforms, live broadcasts, short videos, etc. are optimizing the shopping experience, and it is also crucial to grasp the preferences of users and provide protection. Previously, the "2020 New Youth New Domestic Goods Consumption Trend Report" released by Beijing Normal University pointed out that C2M is accelerating the change of the trend of new youth consumption, "reading" consumer demand from big data, and then reversing the guidance of upstream manufacturers to produce, which can not only shorten the link between supply and demand, but also help supply-side reform and better meet the needs of consumers, thereby improving industry efficiency and supplying various "explosive" goods to the market.
This "reverse customization product" C2M model is also suitable for book sales, and has become one of the important business models for the new e-commerce platform to optimize the book buying experience of new youth. For example, in the second season of the Pinduoduo Knowledge Inclusion Action "Duoduo Reading Month" that ended this autumn, popular books such as "Know My Name", "Sir", "Night Sailing Ship" and "Selfish Gene" also tried to open the pre-sale mechanism of the C2M model while waiting for replenishment of inventory and emergency printing after selling out, bringing readers more competitively priced and affordable books. The results were surprisingly good.
The research group of Beijing Normal University stressed in the report that compared with traditional book retailers, when the new e-commerce platform buys legitimate books at competitive prices for readers, it can not only bring an immersive reading environment, but also meet the needs of different reader groups to the greatest extent, and at the same time provide a key to open the treasure house of knowledge for more new young people from townships and rural areas, and is bridging the digital divide between urban and rural areas and promoting the realization of knowledge inclusion.
*The above does not constitute investment advice and does not represent the views of Wall Street Insights, please make independent judgment and decision-making.