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As Online sellers embrace e-book, will consumers?
By Ding Yining |
March 1, 2012, Thursday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
EVER on the prowl for expanded business opportunities, China online shopping giants Dangdang and 360Buy.com have launched e-book services, offering net buyers electronic editions of Chinese books for up to 40 percent off the retail book price.
Dangdang, which started the service last December, said it is expanding its e-book titles to 100,000. The announcement last week coincided with the launch of 360Buy's digital book service, which boasted 80,000 titles.
E-books offer formats that can be read from desktops to smart phones to tablets. Neither company has yet launched an e-book reader such as Amazon's Kindle.
Most of these e-books come from authorized electronic versions of publishing houses, and the shopping sites will share between 60 percent and 70 percent of the income with the copyright holders.
Going digital
360Buy.com said it expects its library of e-books to expand to 300,000 by year-end.
Shi Tao, vice president for 360Buy book and audio products, said he is confident that the new business, which requires very little capital investment, will turn a profit next year.
By expanding its product range, Shi said his company is hoping to capture changing reading habits and is even offering books no longer in print.
360Buy also said it plans to launch a digital music distribution service in the second half of this year.
Liu Qiangdong, chairman and chief executive officer of 360Buy, said he expects the new e-book service will evolve into a professional, comprehensive platform where consumers could find any book, song or movie they want.
The online seller, which has been expanding quickly from selling consumer electronics to an online mall offering clothing, luxury apparel, food and health products, is always on the lookout for new products, Liu said.
"Our target is to launch different shopping platforms for various groups of customers and make sure they have a very good shopping experience," he told a media briefing in Beijing last week.
He said the focus is moving beyond 360Buy's 38 million registered users to tap China's vast network of computer users and smart phone owners.
Will the strategy work?
For one thing, selling books and movies in digital format is a different kettle of fish from peddling consumer electronics and general merchandise.
For another, a large number of registered users doesn't necessarily guarantee that consumers will be willing to pay for virtual content.
Maybe I am just old-fashioned and believe that reading is most comforting with a book in hand, or maybe I am just dubious that any distributor can develop a promising market for paid content in China.
According to a report last June by research firm Distimo, China is already the second-largest market after the United States for Apple's App Store in terms of number of applications downloaded.
However, the report also noted that smart phone users in Asia tend to be much more "price sensitive" and that overall revenue in terms of paid downloads still lags behind the US and Europe.
The world's largest telecommunications carrier, China Mobile, launched a digital reading service several years back. To date, it seems to be generating a very small proportion of overall revenue. Some complain the content isn't very attractive.
Amazon, the world's leading online retailer and e-book distributor, last year sold more electronic books than print versions - four years after the launch of its Kindle e-book reader.
A slippery slope?
But it's a very different story here in China.
Amazon's Chinese division is reported to have been working long and hard on the introduction of Kindle to the domestic market but has been thwarted so far by complicated patent issues.
Chinese online vendors specializing in gadgets and consumer goods may find it hard to gain a foothold in the realm of reading tastes and habits. They run the risk of getting ahead of themselves in the rush to be all things to all people.
E-books may be the next growth sector for China's fast-changing online retail market, but marketing them will require time in an environment where people are more used to buying books. Are Dangdang and 360Buy ahead of the curve or are they on a slippery slope? That's a hard situation to read.
Dangdang, which started the service last December, said it is expanding its e-book titles to 100,000. The announcement last week coincided with the launch of 360Buy's digital book service, which boasted 80,000 titles.
E-books offer formats that can be read from desktops to smart phones to tablets. Neither company has yet launched an e-book reader such as Amazon's Kindle.
Most of these e-books come from authorized electronic versions of publishing houses, and the shopping sites will share between 60 percent and 70 percent of the income with the copyright holders.
Going digital
360Buy.com said it expects its library of e-books to expand to 300,000 by year-end.
Shi Tao, vice president for 360Buy book and audio products, said he is confident that the new business, which requires very little capital investment, will turn a profit next year.
By expanding its product range, Shi said his company is hoping to capture changing reading habits and is even offering books no longer in print.
360Buy also said it plans to launch a digital music distribution service in the second half of this year.
Liu Qiangdong, chairman and chief executive officer of 360Buy, said he expects the new e-book service will evolve into a professional, comprehensive platform where consumers could find any book, song or movie they want.
The online seller, which has been expanding quickly from selling consumer electronics to an online mall offering clothing, luxury apparel, food and health products, is always on the lookout for new products, Liu said.
"Our target is to launch different shopping platforms for various groups of customers and make sure they have a very good shopping experience," he told a media briefing in Beijing last week.
He said the focus is moving beyond 360Buy's 38 million registered users to tap China's vast network of computer users and smart phone owners.
Will the strategy work?
For one thing, selling books and movies in digital format is a different kettle of fish from peddling consumer electronics and general merchandise.
For another, a large number of registered users doesn't necessarily guarantee that consumers will be willing to pay for virtual content.
Maybe I am just old-fashioned and believe that reading is most comforting with a book in hand, or maybe I am just dubious that any distributor can develop a promising market for paid content in China.
According to a report last June by research firm Distimo, China is already the second-largest market after the United States for Apple's App Store in terms of number of applications downloaded.
However, the report also noted that smart phone users in Asia tend to be much more "price sensitive" and that overall revenue in terms of paid downloads still lags behind the US and Europe.
The world's largest telecommunications carrier, China Mobile, launched a digital reading service several years back. To date, it seems to be generating a very small proportion of overall revenue. Some complain the content isn't very attractive.
Amazon, the world's leading online retailer and e-book distributor, last year sold more electronic books than print versions - four years after the launch of its Kindle e-book reader.
A slippery slope?
But it's a very different story here in China.
Amazon's Chinese division is reported to have been working long and hard on the introduction of Kindle to the domestic market but has been thwarted so far by complicated patent issues.
Chinese online vendors specializing in gadgets and consumer goods may find it hard to gain a foothold in the realm of reading tastes and habits. They run the risk of getting ahead of themselves in the rush to be all things to all people.
E-books may be the next growth sector for China's fast-changing online retail market, but marketing them will require time in an environment where people are more used to buying books. Are Dangdang and 360Buy ahead of the curve or are they on a slippery slope? That's a hard situation to read.
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