After two years of bidding farewell to the "transitional period", the Kindle, jokingly referred to as the "instant noodle tool" by netizens, has officially terminated its services in China. According to Amazon China's official website, Kindle China Electronic Bookstore ceased operations on June 30, 2023, and ceased cloud download services on June 30, 2024. From then on, undedownloaded e-books will not be able to be downloaded and read.
This means that users will no longer be able to add e-book content to their Kindle, and can only read previously downloaded content. During the transition period of Kindle's withdrawal from China in the past two years, the domestic e-book market remained fiercely competitive. At present, how to go further may be a question that device and content manufacturers need to consider.
Kindle Completely Exits China
Kindle is an e-book reader under Amazon, which entered China in 2013 and was once popular in the Chinese market. Due to its size and thickness being just right for making instant noodle bowl lids, the Kindle is jokingly referred to by netizens as the "instant noodle artifact.". To some extent, this title also reflects that Kindle is in a "gray" (i.e. idle) state in the hands of many users.
The withdrawal of Kindle went through a two-year transitional period. On June 2, 2022, Kindle China announced that Amazon would cease the operation of Kindle e-bookstores in China on June 30, 2023, one year later. Afterwards, users will not be able to purchase new e-books. For e-books that have already been purchased, users can download them before June 30, 2024 and continue reading them thereafter. In addition, for users who purchase Kindle e-book readers after January 1, 2022 and meet the relevant return conditions, Amazon will also provide non quality issue return services.
Chinese consumers have expressed different reactions to the withdrawal of Kindle. Some netizens said, "Now we can only cover it with instant noodles." "Domestic e-books are more convenient," while others expressed regret, saying, "I really watched this thing go from glory to decline. The last one was Nokia." "Reading lacks a good platform.".
In the view of angel investor Guo Tao, the reasons for Kindle's complete withdrawal from the Chinese market are multifaceted. Firstly, Amazon's operational strategy in the Chinese market may have a certain gap with localization needs, failing to fully meet the special needs of Chinese consumers. Secondly, the Chinese e-book market is highly competitive, with many strong local competitors such as Yuewen Group and Zhangyue Technology, who have a better understanding of the local market and provide rich Chinese content resources. In addition, copyright issues, data security and privacy protection laws and regulations may also be one of the influencing factors. With the popularity of smartphones and other mobile devices, users may be more inclined to use multifunctional devices to read e-books, thereby reducing the demand for dedicated e-book readers.
The competition in the e-book market is fierce
In fact, throughout the domestic e-book market, in addition to platforms such as WeChat Reading, listed companies such as Chinese Online and Zhangyue Technology are also providing online reading services; In terms of e-book readers, Hanwang Technology, iFlytek, and Zhangyue Technology have also released numerous products, and the competition in the domestic e-book market can be said to be fierce.
Zhang Yue, Chairman of Aoyou International, stated in an interview with Securities Daily that the domestic e-book market is developing rapidly, especially with the popularization of digital reading, more and more people are starting to use e-book readers. The profitability of related enterprises is also relatively good, and some well-known e-book platforms and reader brands have a stable user base and profit model.
"In the long run, e-books remain a good business because the trend of digital reading is irreversible, and there is still a lot of room for development in the e-book market. With the advancement of technology and the continuous changes in consumer demand, the e-book market will see more innovation and competition," said Zhang Yue.
In the view of Zhang Yi, CEO of iMedia Consulting, the Kindle itself has a very high starting point, and its technological level is also worth praising. "If we could have done some iterative updates on the product or changed according to the consumer demand market at that time, I think there would have been a good opportunity, but unfortunately we missed it. Therefore, for a huge market like China, how to adapt to China's consumption needs in the information and intelligence stage needs to be studied by Kindle and many foreign manufacturers." Zhang Yi said.
Guo Tao stated that with the gradual development of digital reading habits, the scale of the domestic e-book market continues to expand. Some large platforms have achieved good profitability through copyright operations, value-added services, and other means, but there are also some small platforms facing profit pressure. As a business, e-books still have potential, especially in promoting digital publishing, reducing publishing costs, and facilitating user access to content. However, to break through in the fiercely competitive market, it is necessary to constantly innovate business models, improve user experience, and strengthen copyright protection and content quality control.