Jingdong's 618 promotion was boycotted by 56 publishers, what happened?

Phoenix.com Finance

2024-05-21 13:20Posted on the official account of Beijing Phoenix Finance

On May 20, two "joint statement notification letters" from the publishing industry circulated on the Internet, pointing at JD.com's 618 promotion.

The two statements were issued by 10 publishing houses in Beijing and 46 publishing units in Shanghai represented by the Shanghai Publishing Management Association. The notification letter mentions that "in response to the 618 promotional activity plan proposed by your company, that is, the price of all kinds of books is guaranteed to be 20-30% off to participate in the promotional activities for a total of 8 days from May 19th to June 20th", the publishing house does not participate and "does not bear any rebate costs incurred during the event".

The companies mentioned in the statement are all "Jiangsu Yuanzhou E-commerce Co., Ltd.", which is an affiliated company of JD Books and a member of JD Production and Development.

An employee of a publishing group who participated in the boycott in the Shanghai joint statement told Phoenix.com Finance that among the many e-commerce platforms, Tmall and Pinduoduo are platforms and do not directly participate in the operation of books. This promotion means that the book will be sold at a discount of 2-3 during the Jingdong 618 promotion, "the platform is too squeezed". He introduced that in the cost of a book, the printing cost alone can be discounted, plus the labor cost and operating costs, the cost of a book is about 3.5% off the selling price, "this discount requirement is basically to ask the publishing house to sell it with its own money."

An employee who works for one of the 10 publishing houses in Beijing also said, "The promotional price has touched the cost line, and even if it is subsidized, it will have a great impact on the subsequent price control." ”

This is a game between channels and publishers.

It is worth mentioning that this is not the first time that JD.com has encountered a large-scale boycott from publishers. In 2013, eight publishing houses issued a statement to boycott e-commerce reverse sales, and the statement was not aimed at a certain e-commerce, but when interviewed by the media, the relevant publishing houses directly mentioned JD.com's promotional activities. In May 2011, JD.com advertised that "all children's books are capped at 4 percent", which was boycotted by 24 children's publishers, and issued a joint statement pointing out that "the act of selling all children's books at prices below cost has seriously infringed on the legitimate rights and interests of relevant publishers and operators, and constitutes an act of unfair competition."

In 2011, Liu Qiangdong responded strongly to this statement through Weibo: "Many people accuse JD.com of destroying the price order of the book industry!" In fact, what we want to break is the monopoly of the book industry! In his view, the essence of the so-called "super strategic agreement" signed by these publishing houses is to restrict competition and maintain monopoly.

Although the boycott of the publishing house has attracted attention, in the opinion of an industry insider, the arm can't twist the thigh, and he is pessimistic about the follow-up development, "If it weren't for the online channel, the physical book would have been difficult to sell, and the publishing house could only jump out from time to time and collectively brush up on the sense of existence."

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