Behind the boycott of "Jingdong 618" by 56 publishing houses: the profit is less than 10%! Long-term anxiety and contradictions between the two sides finally erupted?

Chengdu Business Daily Red Star News

2024-05-24 16:11Published on the official account of Red Star News of Chengdu Business Daily, Sichuan

Recently, the news that 56 publishing houses boycotted the "Jingdong 618 Promotion" has attracted attention.

In the two "Joint Statement Notification Letters", 10 publishing houses in Beijing and the Shanghai Publishing House Management Association, on behalf of 46 publishing units in Shanghai, collectively declared that they would not participate in the 618 promotion plan of Jiangsu Yuanzhou E-commerce Company (a book business company under JD.com) and would not bear any rebate costs incurred during the event.

Subsequently, some Jingdong book purchasers responded to the "publishing house does not participate in the promotion" in the circle of friends, saying that the original intention was to "benefit consumers" and "small profits but quick turnover". Jingdong's public relations department told the Red Star News reporter that the content of the circle of friends is true, and there is no more response except for the circle of friends.

A number of practitioners in the publishing industry told the Red Star News reporter that according to the 618 promotional discount, the publishing house can only lose money, and this boycott statement is the outbreak of the long-term accumulation of contradictions between the publishing industry and the e-commerce platform.

Why the boycott?

Publishers:

The three-fold price breaks through the cost line, "selling one and losing one"

As mentioned in the "Joint Statement Notification Letter", the publisher refuses to participate in the promotion of 618 "All Kinds of Books" and "20-30% off", and does not bear any rebate costs incurred during the event.

The Red Star News reporter saw the words "The Art of Life is 300 minus 50" and "The heartbeat children's book is as low as 2.8% off" in the book section of Jingdong App. A book with an original price of 298 yuan and a price of 150.1 yuan, under the superposition of 300 minus 50 and 300 minus 80 discounts, the price of a single book is 85.1 yuan, equivalent to 28.6% of the original price. However, this discount needs to be perfectly made up to 300 yuan and multiples of 300 yuan to achieve, and there are many books that do not participate in the activity of 300 minus 80.

A number of publishing house practitioners said that the three-fold price broke through the cost line of the publishing house, and "selling one at a loss".

▲Data map According to Visual China

A number of practitioners in the publishing industry pointed out that the current profit of popular books is less than 10%, and if the three-fold promotion is followed, the profit will be directly cleared or even lose money. There are also a number of publishing house editors who calculated a bill for the cost of popular books to reporters: a book with a price of 100 yuan can normally be settled with the e-commerce platform at a price of about 40 yuan, and the 40 yuan settled back will pay the author 6-12 yuan in royalties, about 15 yuan in printing costs, as well as channel commissions, operating costs, etc., and the profit is less than 10 yuan.

Huang Huang, vice president of Publisher magazine, mentioned that the price comparison mechanism that has intensified over the years is a major reason why publishing houses are sensitive to low-price promotions. Huang Huang introduced that platforms, talents, and even dealers will keep an eye on the price of the whole network, and once the discount is lowered, it will be difficult to recover. When new channels come in, they will ask for the lowest price on the whole network, and other platforms will ask for follow-up, and the vicious circle leads to lower and lower prices. In the past two years, the industry has generally felt the downward pressure of the market, and e-commerce platforms and influencers have become more and more tough, using low prices to maintain their own market volume.

Xiao Chen, who is engaged in the selection of books in the live broadcast room, mentioned that price comparison is the main item in her negotiations with the publishing house. Compared with the whole platform and even the offline platform, the price of the publishing house for its own live broadcast room must be the lowest, at least not higher than others. In recent days, she will ask the publishers participating in the live broadcast to promise to insure the price of 618, that is, "the price of the whole platform during the 618 period cannot be lower than that of the live broadcast room". Xiao Chen said that most of the price comparison negotiations would end with her victory, and the publisher would compromise. "Even if the publisher refuses, I can still find a mid-market, that is, a secondary distributor, and get the book at the price I want."

Where does the contradiction come from?

Publishing practitioners: books are used as "drainage tools"

JD.com employees: want to expand sales through small profits but quick turnover

Song Qiang, executive director (president) of China Publishing and Media Business Daily, believes that this public statement is the result of the outbreak of long-term anxiety and conflict accumulation between publishing houses and e-commerce platforms. "The profits of publishing houses have continued to decline, the sales of physical bookstores and traditional e-commerce have declined, and the development of emerging live broadcasts has become irregular, which has made the publishing industry as a whole anxious. Traditional e-commerce platforms are also anxious in the face of the impact of emerging channels and declining market share. On the one hand, it is hoped that the price will be reduced to attract users, but on the other hand, the profit will continue to decline, and the contradiction will erupt. ”

In the eyes of many publishing practitioners, including Song Qiang, for a long time, both traditional e-commerce and live e-commerce have used books as a drainage tool.

Song Qiang told the Red Star News reporter that on the one hand, the unit price of books is relatively low, which is very suitable as a tool for drainage, and the customer group who likes to buy books has a relatively high level and strong consumption power. On the other hand, there are more than 500 publishing houses and thousands of cultural companies in the country, and the industry concentration is very low.

"The publishing industry has always had a love-hate relationship with e-commerce platforms, relying on the traffic they bring and being dissatisfied with the continued low prices. If you look at this statement, although it is a collective boycott, the wording is very tactful, and you can clearly feel that they don't want to completely tear their faces. Song Qiang commented.

The emerging form of sales is also a drainage tool for the positioning of books. Xiao Chen, who does book selection in the e-commerce live broadcast room, said that the unit price of books is low and the profit is limited, and many educational live broadcast rooms will choose books as drainage products, and she has recently communicated with publishers to set the price of several books at 9.9 yuan to attract traffic to the new live broadcast room. Previously, Dongfang Selection had launched a "1 yuan book sale" activity, which caused a shock in the publishing industry.

▲ Jingdong Books staff circle of friends responded on the Internet Jingdong said that there was no other response besides this

A screenshot of the online Moments shows that a suspected JD Book employee responded to the publisher's non-participation in the promotion on the evening of May 21 in the Moments, saying, "I just want to sell cheaper books to benefit consumers; want to expand sales through small profits and quick turnover; Do your best to create value for society. ”

On the evening of the 22nd, Jingdong Public Relations confirmed the authenticity of the screenshot to the Red Star News reporter. The public relations said, "Last night, the friends of the book purchase and sales responded to the publishing house incident in their own circle of friends, and there is no more response to the others." ”

According to CCTV, JD.com has said on this matter that combined with the decline in book sales and the proliferation of online pirated books, JD.com's decisions are generally beneficial to the industry.

Huang Huang, vice president of "Publisher" magazine, told the Red Star News reporter that the impact of the big promotion on the e-commerce platform on sales is declining. On the one hand, the rise of short video channels makes it difficult for e-commerce promotions to form a real price depression, and on the other hand, overly intensive promotions also lead to the market desensitizing to discounts. The e-commerce promotion has gone from "increasing revenue but not increasing profits" in the past to the point of "neither increasing revenue nor increasing profits". Some practitioners in the publishing industry said that even if the promotion leads to an increase in sales, it is an overdraft of the purchasing power in other periods, and the price is still lower, and the publishing house does not get much benefit.

What is the impact on the ecology of the industry?

With cheap paper, with cheap designers

While the royalties are discounted, the quality is discounted

Some publishers boycotted the news comment area of low-price promotions on e-commerce platforms, and many netizens chose to side with e-commerce platforms, believing that book prices were inflated and publishers only cared about profits without considering the interests of consumers.

In fact, book prices have indeed continued to rise over the years. Huang Huang introduced that in 2019, the median pricing of new books was 45 yuan, and in 2022, this data became 49 yuan, while ten years ago, the median pricing of new books was 29 yuan, a significant increase. However, many practitioners in the publishing industry are very helpless about this price increase, because the actual transaction price has not increased, and the price increase is just a helpless choice for publishers to cope with the pressure of e-commerce discounts, and the book industry has been in a state of "high pricing and low discount".

▲资料图 图据IC photo

Huang Huang said that publishers are too weak in public publicity and reader relationship maintenance, and are not able to explain the cost structure and market logic of books to the public, resulting in readers pinning the problem of "high pricing" on publishers.

A senior copyright agent revealed to Red Star News that many publishing houses will have a requirement when discussing royalty conditions with authors, and the royalties will be discounted or no royalties will be paid for the part of the book that participates in e-commerce promotions, live broadcasts, and new media sales. "If you can't compete with the e-commerce platform externally, you can only reduce the cost internally, discounting royalties while using low-cost paper."

An editor of a publishing house said that if you don't find the best translator, the cheapest paper, and the cheapest designer, you can significantly reduce the cost of translating books, but the quality of the books will definitely drop significantly. The editor said that she now often gives up the most suitable process for cost reasons, and gives up some good quality but not necessarily good sales because of the cost and benefit.

The low margins of the publishing industry also have a real impact on the income of practitioners. Song Qiang introduced that the annual income of editors in publishing houses is about 100,000 yuan, which is not high compared with the requirements of master's degree and high cultural literacy. Some editors said that they were often ridiculed by their husbands for their low income. "I'm embarrassed to say that I'm an editor at a publishing house, and I feel like we're all generating electricity for love."

A number of grassroots book editors said that they were very reluctant to see their own and authors' efforts promoted at such a low price, and hoped that everyone would have more respect for knowledge.

How can the publishing industry "save itself"?

Lawyer Questioned: Boycott or Violation of the Anti-Monopoly Law

Practitioners call for more action from publishing houses

In this boycott incident, in addition to the discussion of the difficulty of survival in the publishing industry and the low-price promotion of e-commerce platforms, there are also opinions that this kind of boycott by multiple publishers may be suspected of violating the Anti-Monopoly Law.

Zhang Zhengxin, a lawyer at Yingke Law Firm, said that Article 17 of the Anti-Monopoly Law prohibits competing business operators from boycotting transactions, and the two joint statements clearly violated the law. However, the Anti-Monopoly Law gives some exceptions, depending on whether there is a reasonable reason for such a boycott. On the other hand, if an e-commerce platform forces a publisher to participate in promotions, it is also suspected of abusing its dominant market position.

In an interview with the media, Lai Sen, an associate professor at the Law School of Beijing Technology and Business University, also mentioned that publishers can use the conclusion and implementation of the agreement and the comparison of market power between the publisher and the platform as a defense, but from the perspective of compliance management, it is recommended that the publisher should not reach such a joint statement.

As a senior practitioner in the publishing industry, Song Qiang, executive director (president) of China Publishing and Media Business Daily, believes that it is unreasonable to use anti-monopoly laws and regulations to restrict books, and that books should be fully considered to be not only commodities, but also carry ideas and culture. Song Qiang believes that the industry should reach a consensus that the discount for new books should not be less than much, and the platform should not use price competition, but improve services to attract customers. He also suggested legislation to limit the price discounts of new books and maintain market order.

On the one hand, publishing houses should not be coerced by the platform and have the courage to resist unreasonable low-price promotions, and on the other hand, they should also do a good job of opening up sources and reducing expenditure, optimizing all links, and improving efficiency and planning and marketing capabilities.

Red Star News Chief Reporter Wu Yang Intern Reporter Liu Yaya

Edited by Guo Yu and edited by Deng Minguang

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