Roaming about a bookshop used to be the favorite pastime for
Huang Jiwei, a famed Beijing-based writer, publisher and avid book
collector. He takes great pleasure in spending hours sauntering
among the stalls and shelves, discovering interesting titles and
taking them home.
"The experience is something similar to a shopping spree," he
says. "But it is great fun even if you end up not buying any
books."
He can still recall his first trip to a bookstore as a primary
school boy in the 1960s. Every school day, Huang would pass by a
tiny Xinhua Bookstore outlet somewhere near the Fragrant Hills in
western Beijing. He was often tormented by the fact that he could
not afford to buy the books.
"The auntie at the bookstore was so kind to invite me to sit
down and read the picture-story books free of charge! From that
time, I have cherished a tender feeling for bookstores," says
Huang, who admits he has spent less and less time in the bookstores
in recent years.
Like many other bookworms, Huang has opted to buy new books and
rare and secondhand books at online bookstores, such as www.dangdang.com, www.joyo.com and www.booyee.com.cn.
"The obvious excuse is that I am tied up with my day-to-day
work. But the truth is, buying books online is not only time
saving, but also much more convenient," Huang explains.
For Huang, traditional bookstores just couldn't come close to
offering the multitude of user-friendly services offered by online
stores.
For example, buying through websites would introduce readers to
lists of themed hyperlinks to books they might not be aware of
otherwise.
"With a few clicks, you can browse thousands of titles to find
your favorites," Huang says. "And you make the transactions in your
office or at home. Delivery people will send the books, CDs or DVDs
to your doorstep."
An additional advantage is that online buyers usually get
discounts. Huang recently bought a book about traditional Chinese
medicine. The book was originally priced at 29 yuan (US$3.8), but
he only paid 17.01 yuan (US$2.2) as a VIP customer of the online
bookstore. Online buyers who are not VIPs could get the same book
for 17.5 yuan -- a 60 percent discount from traditional bookstore
prices.
Huang is echoed by Fu Kui, a 32-year-old IT company clerk, who
says "going to the real bookstore has become a luxury" because of
the traffic jams and lack of parking space. Many bookworms have
gone further to read online instead of buying any printed
publications.
"With an e-book, an MP4 or cell phone, you can read almost
anything that is available online," says Li Jin, a graphic designer
in Beijing who has not bought any printed book for at least eight
years.
"Many Chinese websites offer novel downloading services," says
Li, who often peruses websites such as www.cmfu.com in search of new and
interesting material. "The most common practice is to charge the
reader 0.1 yuan per 1,000 words. That price is affordable to
me."
Indeed, book retail businesses in China have undergone dramatic
changes over the past few decades, says Xu Shengguo, researcher
with the China Institute of Publishing Science.
"Besides visiting bookstores, Chinese readers have many
alternative channels to get books, or more precisely, knowledge and
information they are looking for," Xu says.
By the end of 2006, almost all of the 565 publishing houses in
China have opened online bookstores as well as put their products
on some 300 privately owned online bookstores, says Xu, a key
author of Annual Report on the Publishing Industry in China.
By the end of 2006, China has reportedly accumulated 137 million
netizens, half of whom have purchased books and DVDs from online
bookstores, according to a January report from the China Internet
Network Information Center.
In 2006, the total net profit of China's book retail sector
reached 50 billion yuan (US$6.5 billion), of which online book
sales garnered about 1 billion yuan (US$130 million) - a 2-percent
year-on-year increase, Xu says.
According to a market report released in late April by the
research unit of China Book Business News, China has so far
produced at least 530,000 electronic books, with 120,000 titles
newly released in 2006.
By the end of 2006, there were at least 1,417 registered
websites offering reading content in electronic format, with 61 of
them providing original content.
Electronic reading equipment popular among Chinese readers
include PCs, laptops, cell phones, and specially made reading
gadgets, the report shows.
"I believe readers who click through the online bookstores or
download content onto portable reading equipment will increase
dramatically in the years to come," predicts Pang Jingwen, a
manager of www.du8.com, a well
known website that provides both online viewing and e-book content
downloads and boasts at least 3 million long-term subscribers.
More than two decades ago, some people began preaching about the
advent of a "paper-free society", which would arise from rapid
technological advancement. But up to now, that has not become
reality, says Xu.
"It is too early to predict the demise of traditional bookstores
in the foreseeable future," Xu insists.
He believes that printed books will exist for quite a long time.
But with book markets further diversifying, "traditional bookstores
will surely be elbowed to a minor position in the near future".
"Real bookstores are still the first choice for book buyers in
China," points out Li Yuemin, a manager with Wangfujing Xinhua
Bookstore, one of the largest bookstores in China and a major
outlet of the Beijing Xinhua Bookstores Group.
According to Li, the seven-storey store raked in at least 180
million yuan (US$23.5 million) in book sales, and the first quarter
sales of 2007 reached 50 million yuan (US6.5 million), creating a
17.6-percent year-on-year increase.
But to keep up with the new market trends, Xinhua Bookstores
have made continued adjustments over past few years, as smaller
outlets at provincial levels combine to form grouped companies,
says Xu.
On May 30, the Sichuan Xinhua Winshare Chainstore became the
first Chinese bookstore operator to list in Hong Kong, with an
initial public offering price of about HK$2.2 billion (US$281
million).
The Xinhua Bookstore system has been the largest State-owned
book distribution network in China. "For quite a long time, it
virtually monopolized the book distribution and retailing channel
on the Chinese mainland", says Li Bo, a Beijing-based
publisher.
Although the situation began to change in 1984 when privately
owned bookstores and bookstore chains were formed, the Xinhua
Bookstore system "has maintained its position as the No 1 player in
the book retailing markets", says Li, who admits his company has to
cooperate with both private bookstores, online bookstores and the
Xinhua bookstores to ensure their books can reach buyers in each
and every corner of the nation.
(China Daily June 5, 2007)