Redian新闻
>
In China, a Major Battle Between Publishers and Big Tech

In China, a Major Battle Between Publishers and Big Tech

公众号新闻

In an industry first, dozens of publishing houses have announced they will boycott e-commerce platform JD.com’s “618” shopping festival.

A major power struggle has erupted in China’s book market this week, with dozens of publishers announcing a boycott of e-commerce platform JD.com’s upcoming “618” shopping festival over the tech company’s aggressive pricing policies.

China’s big tech companies have long held enormous leverage over the publishing industry, as e-commerce accounts for an estimated 88% of book sales in the country. This has enabled platforms like JD.com to force publishers to offer heavy discounts on their titles in order to take part in major online shopping events.

But many publishers appear to have drawn the line ahead of “618” — China’s second-largest shopping festival of the year, which takes place on June 18 — as they argue that JD.com’s latest sales strategy will make it impossible for them to make money.

In recent days, two major publishing groups have issued statements announcing a boycott of JD.com’s “618” festival. Together, these groups — which are based in Shanghai and Beijing, respectively — represent over 50 different publishing houses, including many of the industry’s largest players.

“We understand that the decision may cause inconvenience, but to maintain the long-term sustainable development of the market, we believe this is a necessary measure,” the Beijing-based group wrote in its statement.

Both groups said they were withdrawing from JD.com’s “618” sales event in protest at the platform’s insistence that publishers offer discounts ranging from 70% to 80% on all their titles throughout the eight-day promotional period.

According to publishing industry insiders, this policy would effectively force publishers to sell books at below cost. The publishers would bear the loss themselves, as in China publishers often sell books directly via e-commerce platforms rather than selling to e-commerce companies.

Publishers appear to be particularly frustrated by JD.com’s insistence that the discounts apply to every title in their collection, leaving them no ability to mitigate their losses.

“It’s treating books as a gateway for traffic and sacrificing the profits of the entire book industry,” one industry insider told Shanghai-based media outlet The Paper.

None of the Beijing-based publishers listed in the statement responded to Sixth Tone’s request for comment. Sixth Tone’s phone call to the Shanghai Publishing and Management Association went unanswered. JD.com also did not respond to requests for comment.

The standoff comes amid a tough period for China’s book market. Book sales peaked at 102.3 billion yuan ($14.3 billion) in 2019, but since then the market has declined, with sales totaling 91.2 billion yuan last year.

Tension between publishers and e-commerce platforms including JD.com, Amazon, and Dangdang.com have been building for years. The dominance of e-commerce in China, as well as the numerous shopping festivals where retailers are expected to offer massive discounts, makes the relationship especially fraught.

According to The Paper, e-commerce platforms routinely insist that publishers sell books for just 40% of their normal retail price during major shopping festivals. Publishers have tried to cope by raising their retail prices — with new book prices rising 70% between 2012 and 2022 — but profit margins remain tight.

In 2011, 24 publishing agencies called out JD.com for unfair practices after the company launched a promotion offering discounts of up to 60% on 50,000 children’s book titles. Two years later, a similar controversy erupted, with eight publishers threatening to boycott e-commerce platforms that tried to force them to sell books at below cost.

Publishers have also expressed unease over extreme price-cutting practices in China’s emerging livestream e-commerce sector. In 2021, a top livestreamer sold 80 million yuan of books in a single sales event, but hundreds of thousands of the titles sold were priced at under 10 yuan.

At the end of last year, New Oriental, the private tutoring-turned-livestreaming company, also attracted criticism from publishers after launching a campaign that gave away books for just 1 yuan in a livestream.

(Header image: JD.com staff pack books for shipment at a warehouse in Kunshan, Jiangsu province, June 8, 2023. VCG)


Download the new Sixth Tone app at the App Store or Google Play
APK file for Android:
https://image4.sixthtone.com/pkg/sixthtone.apk
(Copy URL and open in browser)

微信扫码关注该文公众号作者

戳这里提交新闻线索和高质量文章给我们。
相关阅读
double majorThe Shanghai Temple Offering Noodles for the SoulHer Boyfriend Killed Himself. The Internet Blamed Her.Life in the Background: The Extras Who Became Viral StarsIn Shanghai, a Café Blends Life, Death — and Coffee狗引儿【长篇】(七十)薅羊毛!Blue Bottle coffee 任意饮品统统不!要!钱!诚心请教,这种情况有必要申请double major 吗?Powerful Tornado Kills 5 as Extreme Weather Batters GuangdongExtreme Weather Battered China in 2023. This Year Could Be WorseLe JOURNAL | 工艺交融 Crafted BlendsHarsher Recess Rules Turn School Toilets Into Social HubsIn China, a ‘Good Death’ Still Means Putting the Family First【诚邀投稿】2024 IEEE国际电能转换系统与控制会议(IEEE IEECSC 2024)【求职战报】全球金融交易平台Deutsche Börse Systems销售运营面试邀约!A Century Later, China’s First Female Architect Gets Her DueChina Deploys AI, Facial Recognition to Deter Exam CheatsUnineed美妆护肤买1赠1!GG防脱买2送1!UrbanOutfitter/&Other Stories清仓3折起!Impressions: Jazz Masters in Black and White长篇奇幻浪漫小说《双灵星》第十六章:戏中面对面 (一)每天10句英语口语|She drinks a little wine at timesLotteries to Cowshed Cafés: How Small Coffee Shops SurviveIn China’s Array of Dialects, Emerging Writers Find a New Voice推荐 | 《IEEE Open Journal on Immersive Displays》狗引儿【长篇】(七十一)这世上还是好人多APAD:The difference between a flower and a weed is... ...“再见,Terraform”! HashiCorp被收购后,开发者跪求 IBM:不要合并 Terraform 和 Ansible英国星巴克送杯子!PrettyLittleThing限时1折!山大王精选1折起!最新 Amex Offers 汇总【Secrets & Impression by Secrets 度假村 $750返$200】China’s ‘Supernanny’ Stirs Controversy With Ultra-Harsh Methods麻州一流公立学区,富豪名流聚居地,本周豪宅精选--Weston/Newton/Wellesley/Winchester加拿大鹅精选7折!Urban Outfitters大促半价!A&F全线3折!Uber Eats满£15减£10!B姐,big sur马拉松是不是悬了Freezers Full of Dead Tigers Found Inside Chinese ZooChina Faces Another Blisteringly Hot Summer, Experts WarnJoke of the day: conversation between 2 portobello mushrooms​Everyone Is Fighting Some Kind of BattleHow Loveable Losers Took Over China’s Screens冰岛盖西尔(Geysir),旅游打卡
logo
联系我们隐私协议©2024 redian.news
Redian新闻
Redian.news刊载任何文章,不代表同意其说法或描述,仅为提供更多信息,也不构成任何建议。文章信息的合法性及真实性由其作者负责,与Redian.news及其运营公司无关。欢迎投稿,如发现稿件侵权,或作者不愿在本网发表文章,请版权拥有者通知本网处理。