Are you still downloading it overnight? Kindle China Electronics Bookstore will officially close its market tomorrow | China | Electronics
On June 30th, Amazon's Kindle China Electronic Bookstore will cease operations.
A year ago, Amazon released the "Kindle China Electronic Bookstore Operation Adjustment", announcing the cessation of Kindle electronic bookstore operations in China one year later. In the blink of an eye, the one-year period has come.
That is to say, after tomorrow, Chinese users will not be able to purchase new e-books,; After June 30, 2024, Chinese users can only read e-books downloaded locally, and the e-books purchased in their accounts will be cleared.
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In 2007, Amazon launched the Kindle, sparking a global e-book reading frenzy. In 2013, it officially entered China and became synonymous with e-books, as well as a symbol of a literary lifestyle.
At that time, digital publishing in China had just begun to develop. The "foreign monk" Kindle from across the ocean integrated high-quality terminal services and content services, bringing a new model of the e-book industry, making the traditional publishing industry tremble and feel the wave of technological revolution. In 2018, the sales of Kindle readers in China exceeded one million, reaching its peak.
However, once upon a time, we were about to say goodbye, Kindle!
Chinese users have expressed regret over the withdrawal of Kindle from the Chinese market.
Some "emotional fans" and "iron fans" have expressed that they have purchased over 2000 yuan of e-books on the platform in recent years, and their accounts have all disappeared overnight. This has raised doubts about the trend of digitization and also made users who purchase genuine books that support digitization feel uneasy. Some non hardcore netizens also joked that my Kindle is really going to be used to cover instant noodles now.
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In fact, digital reading has developed rapidly in recent years. According to the statistical data of ePaper Insight, in 2022, under the influence of the global COVID-19, inflation, etc., the electronic technology industry will suffer a major impact, but the electronic paper market in the subdivided fields will grow against the trend, and the shipment volume will continue to record high. In China, it is no exception.
Why did Kindle exit the Chinese market? This may start with two advantages of Kindle.
One is portability, much lighter than carrying paper books; Another aspect is that it retains the "pure reading" atmosphere of paper books - they can only be used for reading and cannot be accessed online.
But today these two advantages are no longer obvious, or even gone. In the past decade, mobile Internet has developed rapidly. From 2G, 3G to 5G, mobile phone functions have changed greatly and become more and more part of people's life.
The 20th National Reading Survey released by the China Academy of Press and Publication shows that in 2022, the exposure rate of digital reading methods among adult citizens was 80.1%. 77.8% of adult citizens read through mobile phones, an increase of 0.4 percentage points from 2021; 26.8% of adult citizens read on e-readers, a decrease of 0.5 percentage points from 2021.
It can be seen that the truly portable reader nowadays is actually a mobile phone, which is replacing the product of e-books.
Another advantage of Kindle is its pure reading experience, which can be replaced by paper books. Since you have a portable phone with a vast amount of information inside, if you want to calm down, you might as well pick up a paper book. The feeling of flipping pages and touching paper with your fingertips is more authentic.
Besides the disappearance of Kindle's own advantages, external competition is also a major reason.
Kindle has been in China for ten years, and domestic brands such as iFlytek, Huawei, Zhangyue, Wenshi, and WeChat Reading have also emerged in the domestic e-book market, causing a certain impact on Kindle's market share.
For example, Zhang Xin, born in 1985, was a loyal fan of Kindle, but he gave up last year and spent nearly 2000 yuan to buy a WeChat book reader. He thinks this is more convenient than Kindle, as he can share resources and progress between his phone, pad, and reader, and can pick it up at any time, opening it to the last location he read.
The software system of WeChat Reading is more in line with the habits of Chinese people in terms of product experience such as notes, resources, and social interaction. One click sharing of notes, the latest Chinese publishing resources, and the ability to see netizens' reading experiences greatly increase his enjoyment of reading.
Users have different ways to deal with Kindle's exit. Some people give up using emotional products to make noodles and switch to mobile reading apps; Some people seize the time to buy books overnight and spend more on the last day.
Have you ever used a Kindle? What do you use to read after Kindle exits the Chinese market? Do you prefer using an e-book reader or a mobile phone? Let's talk about it in the comments section.
