In the past two months, with the theme of "Sharing The New Economy", Chuangbang has visited 10+ start-up companies, as well as relevant investment institutions such as IDG Capital, Lightspeed China, yuanjing capital, etc., bringing first-hand good materials and the latest way of thinking.
This is our 13th report.
For bookworms who love to read, the first reason in the second question should be the biggest problem in the long run. With the increase in the number of books, bookcases need to be constantly upgraded, and the daily classification of paper books is often time-consuming and labor-intensive, and what is more frightening is that once it comes to moving...
Therefore, in the context of the sharing economy, some people may think of "sharing books". The staggering rate of loss of bike-sharing and umbrella-sharing has freaked people out, and will the problem of book damage or loss be worse? Books can't be placed in the open air, at least there must be a smart cabinet, and the cost is another problem. And the source of books, will so many people be willing to share?
At present, the book sharing projects on the market include Chengdu "Mobu Books", which was established in March this year, which converts the express cabinet into a bookcase and is currently in a small-scale test state.
The other is Book++, which provides services such as borrowing, book purchase, and book donation for enterprises through the offline layout of shared bookcases. The project has received a seed round of financing of 6 million yuan in April this year.
Chuangbang interviewed a company that has transformed from a traditional bookstore chain into a "shared book" project called "Aixi Reading". The company began setting up a chain of bookstores in supermarkets in 2003, with a CEO named Huang Hang.
"Aixi Reading" was an unmanned bookstore that cooperated with Wal-Mart supermarkets before
In 2015, Huang Hang began to develop a self-service unmanned book vending machine based on the latest Internet of Things technology, and obtained a number of invention patents.
In 2016, during the trial operation of the book vending machine, it was found that there were very few people who bought books, many people rubbed books and read books, and Huang Hang, who was very optimistic about the business model of the Internet of Things, decided to transform and upgrade the company from 2017.
Huang Hang took back all the book vending machines in more than 200 offline bookstores across the country and upgraded them to "all-in-one vending machines" with book rental functions, the project was named "ibookway - love to read", and the project positioning was "let the world have no difficult books to read".
"Love To Read"
Anytime, anywhere, borrow and return
Survey data show that at present, there is a 100-billion-level book sales market in China, and according to the conservative ratio of 100:1 of the people who read and buy, the reading population can be imagined.
But pain points and needs coexist:
1, borrowing books trouble, return books difficult. Many government self-service libraries need to go to designated locations to apply for borrowing cards, (and need to be borrowed and returned at fixed locations), and are limited to locals;
2. Strong demand for off-site borrowing and repayment. When traveling by plane, train, long-distance bus, subway, bus and other means of transport, borrowing before departure, reading on the way, and returning when arriving is an ideal result;
3. Shortage of book sharing channels. Personal idle books either take up space, give them away, or sell them as waste paper.
In view of the above, the solution of "Love Joy Reading" is: self-service borrowing machine + physical bookstore + online library.
1. Borrow and return, fast experience. "Love Joy Reading" forms a dense self-service book lending network by launching intelligent book lending machines. Scan the code to register, one-click loan repayment, more than Mobike mobike;
2. National outlets, through the loan and return. Subways, trains, planes, these travel processes are the high-frequency use of reading. Self-service book lending machines and supermarket reading halls throughout the country can meet the needs of users for off-site book return and reading extension services;
3, mobile phone point, free borrowing and repayment. Through the establishment of an online library, "Aixi Reading" provides users with online and offline book lending and return services——
Online borrowing, online repayment;
Offline borrowing, online repayment;
Online borrowing, offline repayment;
There is always a line for you, which can be described as the great gospel of lazy cancer in the world!
"Love Joy Reading" will launch a personal way to share books, so that everyone can share idle books, on the one hand, I hope that everyone will meet friends with books, on the other hand, book sharers will also get the corresponding revenue share.
The borrowing price will be dynamically adjusted according to big data such as the frequency of borrowing and the place of borrowing. At present, the number of books that can be presented by "Aixi Reading" is 99 books, and multiple machines can be launched in the same location.
The founder said: The sharing economy is all the problem
It is not a problem for "Love Joy Reading"
Market space, frequency of use, cost, damage to goods, profitability... These are all common problems facing the sharing economy.
From the perspective of the market, the reading survey results released by the China Press and Publication Research Institute show that in 2016, the per capita paper book reading volume of adult citizens was 4.65, and 51.6% of adult citizens preferred paper reading.
Although "shared books" are not just needed in the full sense, their market can at least stand firm. Huang Hang believes that "with the improvement of the reading demand of the whole people, the people who do not buy books are also a huge increase in the unforeseen increase in book lending services." ”
Huang Hang, CEO of "ibookway -- Love Joy Reading"
On the issue of damage to items, Huang Hang confidently told Chuangbang: "Books are different from other goods, and borrowing users themselves are high-quality book lovers and will love books from the bottom of their hearts." Even if the book lending process inevitably produces a small amount of damaged and scrapped books, the profit from book sales in the company's stores nationwide is enough to make up for this part of the loss. ”。
Huang Hang is still very confident about the issue of profitability: "Although the rent of a single book is low, the massive borrowing crowd and the gradual increase in the frequency of borrowing are also a considerable amount of revenue, as long as the scientific and effective operation and management, profitability is still just around the corner." ”
Chuangyebang learned that what "Aixi Reading" needs to do at present is to patiently wait for the book vending machine to be fully upgraded to a "sales and borrowing machine". The company is expected to conduct internal testing on August 1, and on September 1, it will be unveiled as a "super new species of Yonghui Yunchuang under Yonghui Supermarket" in Shanghai Songjiang Wanda Plaza. In October, it entered first-tier cities.
"Aixi Reading" and Yonghui Supermarket cooperate with the reading hall
"Let every city be able to lay out thousands of reading halls and more than 10,000 borrowing machines," Huang Hang told Chuangyebang, "When the user's book purchase behavior model is changed to a book borrowing mode, this may not be difficult to achieve." ”
Throughout the interview process, Huang Hang repeatedly mentioned his patent advantages in the Intelligent Book Machine of the Internet of Things, which is a competitive barrier that he firmly believes in. The patented technology is applied to the "Love Joy Reading" borrowing machine, and the cost of the single machine will be much lower than that of the same industry, and will remain for a long time.
It is precisely because of this that the imagination space of "Love Joy Reading" is huge, and sharing books is only the first entry point. After the future platform operation matures, access to shared charging treasures, shared footballs, shared umbrellas, shared toys, etc. are not a problem, and the ideal business model is "shared Taobao".
15 years of book supply chain management and the accumulation of offline outlets, so that Huang Hang is very confident, he compared his company to a tiger, after the transformation to the Internet, "equivalent to the tiger wings." ”