时间：2022-08-04 03:53:45
The Chinese readers， espe- cially the ones who like reading with electronic devices， might be excited by the news that Kindle is finally to make itself in China， not only the name and Kindle Store， but also the Kindle reading devices.
Several sources have confirmed that Amazon have reached the cooperative agreement with Chinese All， a digital publishing house in China. The latter will provide the operational support for Amazon in China and put an end to the biggest hurdle for Kindle’s entry into China the license.
As for the sales distribution， Amazon chose the well-established local home appliance retailer Suning. Its online retail platform is to be the only online sales channel of Kindle devices apart from Amazon’s official website， and the devices are also available in the exclusive counters of Suning’s outlets.
“The most significant meaning of Kindle’s entry into China is not the availability of devices； instead， it is the brand effect，” says a source. “The devices of Kindle have missed the best opportunity to get into the Chinese market. The biggest profit source is going to be the contents. Here comes the problem： how could Kindle complete the integration of the Chinese ebook market？”
Indirect Entry into China
“To run ebook business in China needs to have the qualifications concerning publication， copying， issuance and importation. Among them the qualification of publishing is the hardest to get，” a publishing expert says. If there are no abundant Chinese contents available， Amazon will not gain profits from ebook sale in China and the Kindle’s attraction will be greatly reduced for Chinese readers. This is the biggest problem for Amazon to push Kindle into China.
Foreign companies are forbidden to get involved into the production and issuance of audio & video products and the electronic publishing， as China’s Guiding Catalogue for Foreign Investment into Industries requires. Amazon， an American company， cannot apply for the license of publishing ebooks in China alone. Thus it has to work with Chinese companies possessing the license.
The General Administration of Press and Publishing noticed the coop-eration half a year ago. It initiated the investigation soon and only gave out its approval at the end of May.
The public data of Chinese All shows that this digital publisher has already gained the accreditation of over 400 publishing institutions in China， including more than 200 publishing houses， accounting for over 40% of the publishing houses in China.
The combination of the two gives a great room for imagination， but the market seems to hold an unoptimistic opinion about this. “It is a common thing to get into the market by way of other’s license in the video industry， but it happened much less frequently in the digital publishing. In addition， the cooperation involves the copyrights of contents， and Amazon， as a foreign company， is to be place under stricter control.”
In the U.S. market， Amazon reached agreements with a lot of publishing houses from 2003， according to which Amazon can turn their books into digital copies， laying a foundation for the coming-out of Kindle. When the Kindle e-reader was launched， there were 88 thousand books available online and readers could read the first chapter of these books free of charge.
The wonderful experience of using hardware and the high-quality contents made the first generation of Kindle a more popular product than iPodin the debut. Hundreds of thousands of devices were sold out in hours. From then on， Amazon spent a dozen of years accumulating the big pool of data concerning readers’ habits and favors. They can make full use of the data. For example， Amazon can forecast the sales volume of books for publishers and report any negative comments about a book to the publishers every five minutes.
Such a pattern allows Amazon to build an empire of ebooks which is dominated by itself. It usually functions as a wholesaler for publishers instead of agents， meaning that it can fix the book price at its own will regardless of the publishers’ opinions.
Looking at Amazon in China， finding a Chinese partner and getting into this market do not mean it can bring its advantages in foreign countries into China as well. The operation pattern of Amazon in China needs to be altered and adjusted several times.
The Market Integration
In the United States， Amazon launched a reading reform with the“Kindle + Kindle Store” pattern. It built an empire of ebooks worth billions of dollars within four years.
The core of Amazon’s Kindle is the “Razor-Razorblade” model spreading the hardware at low price not for profits， but for brand awareness. The brand awareness attracts consumers， whose loyalty is gained by the huge amount of contents. Readers can choose and buy any book they like through Kindle devices this is how Amazon makes money from Kindle.
But things are not optimistic in China. Shanda Literature was once considered Amazon’s counterpart in China with its Bamboo e-reader and the online bookstore named Cloud Book City.
According to the latest data， Cloud Book City had received over 25 million paid orders and over 700 thousand books had been downloaded by March 2. About 20 million users have installed the app of Cloud Book City in their mobile devices.
Apart from Shanda， several ecommerce dealers in China also extended their arms into the ebook market and have certain influence in this field.
Data shows that 360Buy’s ebook business now includes 300 thousand books provided by 200 suppliers. It has recruited over 5 million users with the daily PV of over one million and the gross profit margin hitting 35%.
China’s largest ecommerce website Taobao earned 10 million yuan from the ebook business in 2012. Moutie， a Chinese website that allows writers to post their articles for readers with paid membership to read， received the 1-million-yuan income from its branch at Taobao. As the number of Taobao’s users increased drastically， the sales of ebooks is expected to be dozens of times as high as in 2012 in this year.
In spite of that， the ebook business still accounts for a small part of the entire publishing market in China. Take for example： it takes 30% of the book publishing market in China and earned 3.25 billion yuan from the book business last year， but the revenue from ebooks only amounted to 3 million yuan.
The huge blank explains why Amazon wants to get into the Chinese market so eagerly. But it apparently did not want to have a face-to-face confrontation with Shanda， Taobao and Dangdang， so it chose a rising partner， hoping for an alliance that can give it a foothold in China.
“It has been confirmed that Kindle e-readers will be initially sold in Sun- ing， and the sale of contents is under negotiation，” a source says. If the negotiation goes well， readers will be able to buy and download ebooks from websites of Amazon and Suning.
Suning is a newcomer in the ebook business. Its ebook store was not launched until next year， but Suning is not anin that matter. With the support of capital and rich experiences in online retail， it has shown the confidence and determination to stand against Taobao and Dangdang. The partnership with Amazon will definitely lend power to its expansion.
For Kindle， Suning is also an ideal partner. “Amazon will not choose a partner that is going to be a strong rival in the future. Suning， the newcomer， meets its requirements，” said Su Huiyan， an analyst at iResearch. In addition， the synchronized push of devices and contents， promoted by Suning and Amazon， is the core of ebook industry. Amazon finally finds something similar to its business in the United States， and China is likely to see a more regular ebook market with a strong player.
Whether Amazon can become the ruler of the Chinese ebook market from this cooperation remains unknown， but the cooperation finally enlightened this market， which used to be infested with piracy and other problems. Let’s hope Amazon and Suning could set up a good example in this market and guide the ebook business in China to a right direction.