Compared to hundreds of millions of readers, the sales volume of one million copies is still far from the true civilian age. The electronic paper books that are supposed to shift demand for reading also face many challenges such as fierce competition, lack of professionals, and lack of protection of intellectual property rights. It is clear that there is still a long way to go to become an ideal alternative to “civilian readingâ€. go.
The crowds competed, the sales of electronic paper books exceeded 1 million, and the unit price fell below 1,000 yuan in the electronic paper book market in 2010. It was called "hot" -
The hardware manufacturers’ performance is eye-catching. Hanwang began selling electronic paper books only in August 2008. Following the sales record of 266,000 copies in 2009, it sold 704,900 copies in 2010, and the cumulative sales volume exceeded one million. Founder, Taipower, Hanlin and others followed closely and performed well; Newman and Patriot launched their own e-book brands.
Traditional publishers, telecom operators, and Internet content providers are advancing in high spirits: In the spring of the year, Century Publishing Group and China Publishing Group successively launched Cihai Yuet Reader and Dajia Reader; in May, Reader’s Electronic Book was officially launched for the first time. In the same month, China Mobile cooperated with Hanwang, Datang Telecom and other manufacturers to launch G3 readers, and included mobile reading services in performance evaluations. China Unicom and China Telecom also showed strong follow-up; in August, China’s largest network The original literary platform, Shanda Literature Co., Ltd., launched a high-profile launch of the electronic book Bambook.
According to the 2010 China e-reader market report recently released by the research institute Zero2IPO Research Center, the sales volume of China's electronic paper book market exceeded one million to 1.0349 million copies. Zhang Yanan, an analyst at Zero2IPO Research Center, told reporters that since the concept of electronic paper books entered the public eye in 2008, the sales volume has been in a state of “blowoutâ€, reaching more than 400,000 copies in 2009; in 2009, the nation’s e-paper book companies were not At 30, only one year later, it soared to more than a hundred.
At the same time as the sales volume soared, the prices of electronic paper books continued to decline, and they were increasingly "popular." According to Liu Yingjian, the chairman of Hanwang, the average price of Hanwang in 2010 was about 500 yuan less than the previous year, and the lowest was 999 yuan.
When Shanda's Bambook went public, it set the price at 999 yuan and quickly became the new darling of the market. Hou Xiaoqiang, CEO of Shanda Literature, said: “We are just trying to pull down the price of electronic paper books and allow e-reading to enter the civilian era, so that ordinary people who love to read books will benefit.â€
More encouraging changes come from consumer groups. Liu Yingjian stated frankly that Hanwang was the main player in the gift market, but by 2010, more and more companies used electronic paper books as a tool for employees to learn and train; many business people also began to purchase and use them. “At the same time, more and more white-collar workers have bought and used for themselves, and some parents also use electronic paper books as a learning tool for children.â€
The government boosted demand. The demand for electric paper books will be better and cheaper. The prospects are promising. In addition to the exertion of businesses and consumers, the biggest excitement of e-books in 2010 is the government’s boost.
On October 9 last year, the General Administration of Press and Publication issued the Opinions on Developing the E-book Industry, aiming to promote content, funds, technology, and talents by formulating e-book industry development plans, policies and regulations, relevant standards, and supporting measures. Optimize the allocation of resources, build leading enterprises and well-known brands, strengthen market supervision, optimize the market environment, and earnestly promote the sound and rapid development of e-book industry.
On November 4, 2010, the General Administration of Press and Publication formally issued "E-book Business Qualifications" to 21 companies including People's Publishing House, Hanwang and Shengda. This qualification is divided into four items: e-book publishing, e-book copying, e-book general distribution, e-book import, etc. It closely echoes the "Opinions on the Development of e-book Industry".
"In addition to the government's boost, readers' demand for mobile reading will continue to be strong." Zhang Yanan believes that with the ever-accelerating pace of life and the increasing frequency of travel on business trips, it is difficult for people to take the entire period of time to read as they did before. . "Modern lifestyles will make reading more and more fragmented, and mobile demand will become a powerful force for the development of electronic paper books."
According to reports, in order to meet the reading experience of readers, electronic paper books will develop toward flexible, large-screen, color-screen and touch-screens in the future. Liu Yingjian told reporters that at present, the “unbreakable†flexible electric paper book has a lot in the laboratory and is expected to be launched this year and next. “At the same time, we launched a 9.7-inch color-screen electronic paper book in November of last year and we can mass-produce it in March this year. In addition to reading books and reading magazines, color-screen electronic paper books will give readers a better reading experience. , it will be around 3,500 yuan."
In addition, as display technology and battery technology continue to advance, electronic paper books will be thinner, lighter, more eye-safe, and their standby time will be longer.
As for the latest price that the readers are concerned about, this year it is expected to have a $99 electronic paper book. People in the industry believe that domestic electronic paper books will continue to be in a period of rapid growth, and by 2015 they are expected to become the world's largest e-book market.
The core of competition is not in the terminal, but the biggest obstacle in the development of content e-paper books is that although the prospects for intellectual property protection are promising, Zhang Yanan still emphasizes that e-paper books face “heavy challenges†and that their healthy development needs to pass three levels: vicious competition, Lack of talent and intellectual property protection.
She said that because of the low technical threshold, the vicious competition in the price war is unavoidable. This includes both the price war of the electronic paper book itself and the content price war. In terms of talents, electronic paper books need complex professionals who have a good understanding of digital publishing, the Internet, mobile Internet, telecommunications operators, traditional publishing, and electronic paper books. At present, such generalists are very scarce.
Zhang Yanan believes that compared with the first two levels, the more challenging is the protection of intellectual property rights. “Because no matter how fancy the electronic paper book is, the most important thing is to read the content. In addition to demanding that the electronic paper book store its rich content, consumers also want to be able to download the latest and fastest content from the resource platform. The competition for resources ultimately comes down to the protection of intellectual property rights."
Regardless of this, both the grand and the Hanwang who built the Hanwang Book City share the same feeling. Liu Yingjian stated that the key to the real prosperity of modern newspapers and magazines after entering the digital age lies in the protection of intellectual property rights. In the United States, because copyright protection of books is relatively effective, readers can only download through electronic paper books and cannot download on their own, which eliminates many problems derived from piracy. However, in China, users have more access to copyright-free books, so content resources are not unique and exclusive, and they are not attractive enough for users. For traditional publishers who have mastered the advantages of content resources, out of vigilance for emerging markets where pricing power is not yet in their hands, the latest advantageous content resources will not be sold to manufacturers. "How to establish a model for win-win cooperation between manufacturers and traditional publishers requires further exploration."
Hou Xiaoqiang said in an interview: “What I am most worried about is the prevalence of piracy! For example, over 95% of the well-known novels on the website of Shanda Literature have been pirated. Under such circumstances, electronic paper should be replaced by civilian reading. Tools, hard!"
Links to e-books and e-books: E-books refer to e-books that are downloaded from various terminals. They are book formats that do not use traditional paper printed materials. The electronic paper book refers to the professional equipment for reading e-books (its term is e-reader). Its manufacturing technology and technology are all based on convenient reading and healthy reading and development. Unlike electronic products using LCD screens such as mobile phones, PSPs, and netbooks, electronic paper books use electronic ink (E-ink) displays to provide electronic reading products that are similar to paper reading experience, and are compatible with PDF, CHM, TXT, and other formats. It also has the advantages of compact and light digital products, low power consumption, low energy consumption and large storage capacity.
Electronic Paper History: The original electronic paper book was born in 1997 in the United States and was first introduced by Amazon. It is considered to represent the advent of a new era of reading. At the end of 2009, Amazon's Kindle sales surpassed traditional paper books for the first time.
How far is the electric paper book from civilians?
Reading Tips: In 2010, sales of Chinese electronic paper books that had entered the public eye for a few years exceeded 1 million, and the unit price of products fell from 2,000 yuan to 10,000 yuan. According to the public opinion, electronic paper books have entered the civilian era.