In the second quarter of 2011, mobile reading revenue growth slowed down to 3.43% q-o-q for a turnover of 1.12 billion RMB, according to data provided by Analysis International. One reason are unsubscriptions of mobile newspapers and their unauthorized offers in Apple and Android app stores. Mobile newspapers showed negative growth and only contributed 628 [...]
Archive for the ‘e-commerce’ category
Mobile bookstore launched by Zhejiang Xinhua and China Mobile
15/08/2011On August 8th, the revised Bookuu Web and Mobile Book Store were launched under a cooperation between Zhejiang Xinhua Book Store Group and China Mobile Zhejiang Branch. On the Mobile Bookstore, Zhejiang Xinhua will offer bibliographic information, China Mobile Zhejiang Branch will offer information query and ordering services and Bookuu Web will distribute the books [...]
Baidu + Fanshu.com: new digital book market monopoly on the horizon in China?
11/08/2011Two recent events caused a wake-up call for online booksellers in China, who had felt save from the uncertain future of physical bookstores: Online bookstore Jingdong Mall supposedly paid around 10 million RMB for exclusive debut rights to Annie Baobei‘s new novel. [As mentioned on her blog, "Spring Feast" -my translation of 春宴- was available [...]
Online bookstores in China: An effective supplement to traditional sales of publishing houses?
03/08/2011More and more publishing houses in China have opened online bookstores, with two major models apparent: Big Mart Model As an example, China Machine Press established its online bookstore “Golden Book Net” five years ago. Like a mart, the online bookstore has all kinds of books, however, it can’t provide discounts as low as offered [...]
Half of China’s private bookstores closed down in the past decade
02/08/2011As stated in China Publishing Today’s article “On the spreading bookstore crisis” (in Chinese), “according to China Federation of Industry’s Book Industry Association survey, almost half of private bookstores have closed down in the past 10 years, this trend is accelerating.” A major reason are online bookstores. Also see these previous posts: GAPP to support [...]
Wake-up call for traditional publishers: Appeal in China’s first digital copyright case turned down – industry voices
06/07/2011On July 4th, China’s so-called “first digital copyright case” [see post "First digital copyright case decided in China"] came to an end with the court dismissing Zhonghua Book Company’s appeal. Voices of publishing insiders on this case: Bi Yu of Light Industry (Beijing) Web Press Ltd.: Publishing houses should increase competitiveness in digital copyright and [...]
China’s Young Children Publishing Houses Association: digital publishing focus, but competition worries
14/06/2011The East-China Six-Provinces Young Children Publishing Houses Association has been co-sponsored by Chinese World Publishing Media, 21st Century Publishing House, Zhejiang Children’s Press, Tomorrow Publishing House, Jiangsu Children’s Publishing House and Fujian Children’s Publishing House for 24 years. According to this year’s Annual Conference, the six publishing houses will start in-depth cooperation on new media [...]
Online bookstores’ price war in China continues
25/05/2011With Children’s Day approaching on June 1st, online bookstores in China begin to discount their children books, leading to complaints from publishers. 24 children publishing houses fought against 360buy.com’s promotion together, stating that the discount of online bookstores is an unfair competition. 360buy.com and Joyo-amazon responded to the issue: Liu Qiangdong, CEO of 360buy.com, expressed [...]
China’s online retailer 360buy.com offers international ordering for 500.000 books
10/05/2011As blogged in Wall Street Journal’s China Real Time Report, international readers such as Overseas Chinese can order from a selection of 500.000 books at 360buy.com with payment via PayPal. However, fees for DHL shipment make this a costly endeavour: “Chinese Books Now Available by Airmail, For a Price“.
Experts discussed new strategies of newspaper marketing (China)
29/04/2011The National Newspaper Distribution and Marketing Strategy Seminar was held by Beijing Daily Newspaper Group recently. Topics included newspaper distribution markets and marketing, alliances, innovations, mistakes, etc. Consensus was reached by the participants: To focus on major works of newspaper distribution To upgrade the newspaper distribution network. To use the information value of customer databases. [...]
Going out, down, and up: strategy of Zhejiang Xinhua Bookstore Group (China)
20/04/2011In 2010, Zhejiang Xinhua Bookstore Group achieved rapid progress, realizing sales of 7.67 billion RMB in the province (+5.92% y-o-y). According to its General Manager Wang Zhongyi, the group’s operation objectives in the 12th five-year period are to achieve 7% annual sales growth, reaching 11 billion RMB in the province at the end of 2015, [...]
New regulations on online bookstores in China
18/04/2011On April 12th, GAPP published three newly revised regulations: “Publications Market Management Regulations”, “Measures for the Administration of Subscriber Orders for Imported Publications”, and “Administration of Import of Audio and Video Products”. Regarding new clauses on online bookstores, a GAPP Policy and Law Department official said that the approval criteria for online bookstores are adjusted [...]
Alibaba enters digital publishing with iPhone client and Taobao Bookstore
18/04/2011After Baidu and Shanda, Chinese e-business giant Alibaba, revealed its digital publishing plan. An iphone client named Taobao Bookstore is launched, representing the first such e-book platform with copyrighted works in China. Relying on the high traffic volume on its Taobao online e-commerce website, Alibaba aims for users who want to download copyrighted works, of [...]
Publishing in China: Digital Copyright Protection Projects
29/03/2011A list of Major Science & Technology Projects in Press and Publishing was published, starting with 23 Chinese Library Projects (of which I provide a selection in this post). Of more interest for the publishing industry are the 15 Digital Copyright Protection Technology Research Projects and 6 topics, with each one having been awarded to [...]
Online bookstore price war in China – what is at stake
29/03/2011The price war between 360buy.com and Dangdang.com is still intensive, and the former will launch a new round with promotional activities beginning April 1st. For 360buy, entering the book and audio-video market is an important process of transformation, which will support the establishment of a comprehensive online shopping platform and the listing in the USA. [...]
China’s publishing houses: online bookstores and micro-blog marketing
22/03/2011More and more traditional publishing houses are launching their online bookstores – like Shanghai Art Publishing Group, East China Normal University Press, Higher Education Press, East China University of Science and Technology Press – or endeavor in micro-blogging marketing, as are Shanghai Translation Publishing House and People’s Literature Publishing House. According to Liu Guanghan of [...]
Digital publishing in China: Dragonsource Qikan to launch 500 magazine apps this year
21/03/2011Recently, Dragonsource Qikan launched its first app “Popular Photography” for the iPad. Within only 4 days, this app was downloaded over 20,000 times without any promotion. This was Dragonsource’s first step in its apps strategy, this year the company plans to launch 500 iPad apps in cooperation with periodical publishers who want iPad access but [...]
Baidu’s troubles: Lawsuits on copyright piracy and search monopoly (China)
21/03/2011In addition to the fifty authors accusing Baidu of participating in copyright violations in an open letter, the complaints against Baidu come from various sides: China Writers Association The association’s vice president Zhang Kangkang pointed out in the “two sessions” that the digital publishing industry is facing a problem with copyright authorization for mass-market works. [...]
China’s top online bookstore Dangdang.com will block Baidu search engine, stop advertising on Baidu
18/03/2011Effective 01 April, China’s largest online bookstore Dangdang.com will stop advertising on search giant Baidu. The company also announced on its website that it will block Baidu’s search engine, even though this means its book offers will not be found on Baidu anymore. As compensation for its customers, next-day delivery will be offered to most. [...]
Chinese authors blame search giant Baidu for copyright infringement – with comment
16/03/2011On the occasion of World Consumer Rights Day, fifty authors accused China’s largest search engine Baidu of participating in copyright violations in an open letter on publisher Shen Haobo’s blog (in Chinese). As the Xinhua.net article “China’s search giant Baidu in wrangle over copyright theft” states, this coincided with a call by China Written Works [...]
New rules to fight online piracy in China
16/03/2011As China Daily reports in “New Rules to Fight Online Pirates“, new regulations governing cross-regional investigation and collection of evidence in online piracy and counterfeits will be released by the State Administration for Industry and Commerce (SAIC). According to SAIC Vice Minister Fu Shuangjian, a final draft is now being prepared. The article provides further [...]
Teaching materials: online sales increase in China
21/02/2011Due to the tight connection between teaching materials and classroom teaching & examination, strong demand for print materials will continue. But online marketing channels will be the focus of teaching materials’ development in the coming years. Three obstacles for online sales of teaching materials: Distribution speed. Since the sale needs to be synchronized with the [...]
Price war of online bookstores in China cripples traditional book business
16/02/2011The price war triggered by Dangdang and 360buy.com at the end of last year led to flexible, even “seasonal” pricing in the book market, severely impacting traditional bookstores’ margins. The article in China Publishing Today warns that in the end the price war of online bookstores will result in a vicious cycle including distributors and [...]
Empty shelves in Baidu’s online bookstore (China)
31/01/2011At the end of last month I summarized an article “Baidu began selling e-books to counter piracy allegations” which already stated that Baidu had quietly launched its Bookstore business and that the bookstore is made up of nine categories such as novel, literature, science, etc., with only 28 books on offer. Although the article “Baidu [...]
Xinhua Bookstore’s One-Net system opened (China)
12/01/2011On January 7th, the opening ceremony of Xinhua Bookstore’s One-Net system, a cross-regional collaboration net established by its branches in 32 provinces and cities, was held in Beijing. GAPP’s vice director Yan Xiaohong attended the ceremony, in his speech he stated: The One-Net system is one of the 12th “five-year” plan key projects. During the [...]
Shanda entering online payment – Domain name for platform confirmed (China)
10/01/2011Shanda’s payment tool Sheng Futong was launched officially on January 6. Its domain name was confirmed as www.shengpay.com, but it couldn’t be accessed immediately. According to related news, Sheng Futong has been listed as a third-party payment tool and a payment business license has been applied for. Source: Domain name of Shengda’s payment tool confirmed [...]
Baidu began selling e-books to counter piracy allegations
28/12/2010Recently, the Library Bookstore was launched very low-key on Baidu Library’s website, meaning that Baidu officially started its online sale of e-books and attempts to establish cooperative relationships with publishers, thus hoping to counter allegations of piracy. (See previous post “Shanda accuses Baidu of fostering online piracy; will launch own search engine for copyrighted e-books“). [...]
Price War update: Publishers boycott 360Buy.com (China)
21/12/2010The price war triggered by 360Buy.com lead to publishing institutions jointly stopping to supply books to 360Buy, worrying that dealers will make use of the price war to harm their market. Source: Publishing institutions jointly resisting 360Buy.com (In Chinese) Also see previous post: Price war: 360buy.com to stop direct reductions, but Amazon follows suit
GAPP: to further standardize publication’s online distribution (China)
16/12/2010Already on December 7th, GAPP published a “Notice” on Promoting Online Publishing’s Healthy Development, requiring all newly established online publishing enterprises to acquire both the Publications Business Certificate and the Audio-Visual Products Business Certificate, and to register with the industry and commerce department within 30 days. Enterprises already registered before the Notice should acquire the [...]
Price War Ignited Between Online Booksellers in China
15/12/2010As Caixin reports, a price war has begun between Dangdang.com, which began offering discounts to celebrate its successful IPO, and rival 360buy.com, whose CEO stated that all books will be 20% cheaper than at rivals. The article states that “Dangdang currently offers 600,000 books on its website, while 360buy sells 220,000.” For analyst views and [...]
GAPP pushes international marketing channel expansion (China)
13/12/2010According to GAPP’s news briefing, another key project of the “go out” strategy has entered a substantive phase, the China Publication International Marketing Channel Expansion Project, consisting of the following three subprojects: International Mainstream Marketing Channel Cooperation Project: Already launched. The project aims to use the transnational distribution and leading retailers’ distribution & selling networks [...]
China’s book industry: series of standards to be introduced
09/12/2010According to the Inaugural Meeting of the China Publication Distribution Standardizing Technical Committee, a series of basic standards – such as a Book Industry E-Commerce Process Specification and a Bookstore Service Specification – will be gradually introduced in the next five years. The China Publication Online Information Exchange Format for Books is aimed to unify [...]
Shanda Literature’s CEO on confronting Baidu with own search engine (China)
02/11/2010After getting involved in the online shopping search business, Shanda Literature announced that it had started developing its vertical search engine for novels. Hou Xiaoqiang, CEO of Shanda Literature, talked about the strategy in an interview: Shanda was forced to enter the search business because of widespread piracy, especially by Baidu’s search. Shanda’s Cloud Search [...]
“Most Admired Chinese Companies”: Alibaba and Baidu ranked #1, #2
24/10/2010The “2010 Most Admired Chinese Companies” list was released by Fortune China and Hay Group on October 22nd. Four Internet companies are included in the Top 25 list, with Alibaba and Baidu ranking first and second. The companies were selected by 25,000 senior managers and evaluated by 9 criteria such as product/service quality, management quality, [...]
The development of digital periodicals in China: How to merge both old and new media
22/10/2010[Note: The question of how to merge both old and new media was discussed during the 2nd Asia-Pacific Digital Magazine Conference, which was held October 14-15 in Hangzhou, sponsored by FIPP and China Periodical Association. This post focuses on the speech given by the President of Zhejiang Daily Newspaper Group, Wang Yiyi.] Wang Yiyi is [...]
Blue paper: “China’s Informationization: Situation Analysis and Forecast (2010)”
08/10/2010China’s Social Sciences Academic Press published a blue paper “China’s Informationization: Situation Analysis and Forecast (2010)”. The report states that also due to the financial crisis, more and more Chinese shop online. In 2009, the number of online shoppers rose 45.9% year-on-year to 108 million (and the number of online game accounts to 265 million, [...]
Anti-Phishing Alliance of China: higher online shopping risk
07/10/2010The Anti-Phishing Alliance of China (APAC) warned consumers to discriminate online shopping and payment websites more carefully from the illegal activities of fake websites because the “Holiday Effect” was obvious in phishing case numbers in prior years. According to statistics: – up to August, 2010, APAC accepted 23,066 complaints concerning phishing websites, 22,793 of them [...]
Online bookstores in China without special permits shut down
02/10/2010According to new regulations issued by GAPP several weeks ago, online bookstores without a “Business License for Publication and Audio-Visual Products” had to shut down effective September 30th. However, compared to physical bookstores, there are still many pirated books online after the implementation. Source: Online bookstores: permit is required from Sep. 30th (in Chinese)
New regulation: virtual currency may be criminal (China)
01/10/2010[Note: The "Q coin" is a kind of virtual currency issued by Tencent to pay for its online services. Usually 1 Q coin is equal to 1 RMB.] The Chongqing Procuratorate published the “”Opinions on Handling Online Gambling, including some points: – Virtual currency is identified as betting capital, calculated according to its actual purchasing [...]
Third-party online payment providers to be regulated by Central Bank (China)
01/10/2010The “Enforcement Regulation on Management Methods for Payment Services of Non-Financial Corporations” was published by China’s Central Bank. Under this regulation, the third-party payment corporations will be officially included in the supervision system with legal status. Online gambling, money laundering and reserve ratio are the focus points of this regulation. According to data by the [...]
Group buying websites in China: quality certification and rating system to counter complaints
30/09/2010As China Daily’s article “Complaints piling up about group buying websites” states, complaints rise, mostly because of discrepencies between offer and received goods or services. The China International Electronic Commerce Center will offer a quality certification and rating system to regulate these websites, however, it will be voluntary.
Dangdang.com to list on US stock market at end of year; book market data (China)
30/09/2010Dangdang.com, the Chinese “equivalent” to Amazon.com, is about to finance 200 million USD at the end of this year, Li Guoqing, co-chief executive of Dangdang, revealed in an interview with the First Financial Daily. This is the fourth round of financing and the first since 2006. Dangdang’s book business increased 60% in the last year. [...]
Sources: Taobao to launch its “TaoPad” tablet PC in battle for China’s mobile Internet
29/09/2010It is reported that Taobao is currently working with third parties to develop the “TaoPad” Tablet PC which is to be launched this year in a battle for the mobile Internet. A customized mobile phone is also planned. Sources say Taobao zo push custom Tablet PC “TaoPad” within this year (in Chinese)
1215 group purchasing enterprises in China – attracting VC
28/09/2010According to the “2010 China Online Group Purchasing Report”, the number of online group purchasing enterprises in China is 1,215 up to August 2010. Based on a survey of 200 questionnaires in this report, 96% enterprises have financing intentions, 12% of them have already received capital. Online shopping business springing up in China, group purchasing [...]
China’s online publications market: New regulations will cause reshuffle
21/09/2010On August 30th, GAPP issued a notice to standardize the online publications, requiring related enterprises to obtain a Business License for Publication and Audio-Visual Products before September 30th. The notice informed that: – online publications includes books, newspapers, journals, audio-visual products and digital publications. – enterprises applying for engaging in online publications wholesale business must [...]
China’s Sohu may spin off its search engine
16/09/2010As the report in Shanghai Daily states, “Sohu Inc may spin off its search engine Sogou after Alibaba Group invested in the company last month.” The article also gives further data on the share structure. Also see: Alibaba and fund to take 16% share in Sohu search engine subsidiary Sogou.com; Baidu to lose ad market [...]
