56 publishing houses collectively boycotted the promotion of JD.com 's books, which made JD.com stand inFreeslotspokerIn the spotlight of public opinion.
On May 22nd, thepaper.cn learned that some JD.com books were purchased and sold in moments to publicly respond to the incident. This buyer said thatFreeslotspokerOver the past two days, many publishers have sent me letters saying that they would boycott JD.com 's book promotion, in a particularly serious tone! I really don't think it's easy for me. I just want to sell cheaper books to better benefit consumers; I just want to expand sales through small profits and quick turnover to create revenue for my partners; I just want to try my best to promote consumption to create value for society. Why are you so angry? what did I do wrong? "
"in the end, I was wrong, and I was entangled." the buyer said, "forget it, there are still a lot of goods to replenish and promote tomorrow." Subsequently, it advertised JD.com 's 618 promotion, saying that it would bring consumers a 50% discount cap on their own books, with a maximum of 300 minus 130 for superimposed product coupons.
Previously, two "joint statement notification letters" issued by the publishing industry have been circulated on the Internet. The two notification letters were issued by 8 publishing houses in Beijing and the Shanghai Publishing Management Association on behalf of 46 publishing units in Shanghai, declaring that they would not participate in the 618 promotion proposal put forward by Jiangsu Yuanzhou Electronic Commerce Co., Ltd. (i.e. JD.com).
According to the promotion information released by JD.com, for a total of eight days from May 19 to June 20, all-variety books participated in the promotion with a 20% discount of 30%. In this regard, the above 56 publishers made it clear that they would not participate and stressed that they would not bear any rebate costs during the promotion period.
However, JD.com did not respond directly to the matter.
A senior editor of a Shanghai publishing house told reporters that the statement is not to boycott e-commerce, but to resist excessive depressing book prices. "the focus of this dispute is that the platform wants traffic and low prices, but the losses have to be borne by the publishers themselves." this also means that as long as they participate in this 618, publishers need to provide additional funds to support JD.com to give a 2-70% discount. As a matter of fact, when publishers took part in the promotion in previous years, they all shouted at a loss, but this year the discount was too low, and resentment broke out. "
"the pricing of a book includes 10% of the author's cost, 10% of the 15% printing cost, and 10% of the management fee, and these hard costs account for 30%. If publishers want to make a profit, the discount price should at least reach 40% of the price. 50%. "
Li Yuan (pseudonym), who used to work for Peking University Publishing House and is still a publishing practitioner, calculated that the 2-70% discount proposed by JD.com could not cover the costs of publishers, or even backwards.
Another head publishing house marketing editor told the reporter that the crazy price war between e-commerce platforms has led to book price deformities, which is not in the interests of publishers, nor is it the intention of publishers. "channels gain discourse power through crazy profits and become strong, and then they will force publishers to cut prices and eventually eat up content producers."
Century Wenjing also published the joint statement on the official Little Red Book account, saying: "the big platform has more responsibility and obligation to maintain a good market order of fair competition."
In the notice letter of the Joint statement issued by the Shanghai Publishing House Management Association, it is mentioned: "from maintaining the stability and prosperity of the book market, opposing disorderly competition, and the strong appeal of Shanghai publishing houses, I will solemnly declare on behalf of the 46 publishing units in Shanghai that I will not participate in the 618 promotion unilaterally proposed by your unit, and will not bear any rebate costs incurred during the event."
The controversy also caused a split in public opinion: "Books are becoming more and more expensive, many of which are more than 100 yuan, and prices of 70-80 yuan are also very common." "as ordinary consumers, under the same conditions, the lower the price, the better." "No matter how publishers make a statement, in the end, it can only depend on what consumers think and whether they can withstand the test of the market and the times." On social media, many readers expressed their support for the e-commerce platform.
Some readers said angrily: "because the channel is dominant, 77% discount is given to you and sold to you, but publishers are forced to set high prices to deal with ultra-low discounts. Authors, translators, designers, editors and other links are squeezed, and the money earned by all people together is better than Big V for a few minutes."
It is understood that in order to protest against JD.com 's 2-70% discount promotion, many publishing houses removed their books from JD.com APP, but by the time of publication, most of the removed books had been put back on the shelves for sale.