was used, and found that the manufacturer was gone.
Written by | Bi Andi
Edited by | Zhao Jinjie
Source | Lunch Box Finance (ID: daxiongfan)
Another e-paper book product is no longer in operation. Recently, QQ Reading e-book device/pocket reading (hereinafter referred to as "pocket reading") announced the suspension.
in "Pocket Reading" with only 4778 members, some people posted and asked: Have you received text messages too? Screenshots posted by netizens from
show that in the text message notification from "中文 Group ", the user was told that Pocket Reading will cease operations on October 26, 2022.
At that time, pocket reading will not support the purchase of new books, but you can continue to read the books you have downloaded and the documents you have stored. In addition, the purchased book information and balance assets are interoperable with the same account as the QQ Reading App and Qidian Reading App.
As early as the end of 2020, a user posted online that he found that the Tmall store in the pocket reading was closed, and suspected that he was going to "run away". In June this year, someone discovered that the "official micro-touch" of the pocket reading was closed.
Fortunately, the final exit of Pocket Reading was quite decent. Many users said that Pocket Reading's customer service suggested that they upgrade again in the end, and after the upgrade, they will support the download and use of third-party applications.
pocket reading products are between mobile phones and readers. On the one hand, they support functions such as receiving and making calls and sending and receiving text messages. On the other hand, they use a semi-closed system. The first generation only supports QQ reading, and the second generation supports QQ reading, WeChat reading , etc.
A good e-book device was unilaterally "dragged the network cable" by the manufacturer. This is not the first time that the device has become an "orphan" and users have saved themselves.
Just 3 months ago, on June 2, Amazon issued an announcement stating that it will stop the operation of Kindle e-bookstores in China one year later on June 30, 2023. After this, users will be unable to purchase new e-books. E-books that have been purchased can be downloaded and continuously read before June 30, 2024.
Anyone who has used Kindle knows that this device with millions of users in China does not have any third-party software. It can be regarded as a three-dimensional entity presentation of the Kindle application software. Kindle is not as kind as pocket reading. Before leaving, it opens a "back door" to download third-party software for users.
At that time, Kindle users were actively saving themselves, either looking for alternative products from Kindle all over the world, or preparing to "change the area code" to continue using the device.
Buy e-book reader . Those problems that are often criticized such as low refresh rate, high latency, and high idle rate are not scared at the moment. As the manufacturer is gone, it is probably the greater risks that users have to face.
Since Amazon Kindle officially entered China in 2013, the ink screen products in the consumer field have experienced a fluctuation period from fanaticism to cooling. Now, the ink screen products have not realized their ambition to "replace paper books" on the C-end and have become niche toys.
But the market for this toy is not deserted at all. When Kindle previewed its exit, various manufacturers seemed to be ready to take advantage of the gap, and various products emerged one after another. Even Huawei is entering the market strongly.
In 2018, Amazon announced the sales of Kindle in China, with a total of millions of units and nearly 700,000 e-book sales, an increase of nearly 10 times compared with 2013. This is also the only time Amazon has released data related to Kindle China.
was also that year. David Limp, then senior vice president of Amazon Equipment, said that Kindle already occupied more than 65% of the market share in the electronic paper book field.
But that was also the last peak of Kindle in China. The unremitting pursuit of domestic e-book readers and the rise of domestic free reading apps are slowly eroding the Chinese market of Kindle.
Tencent is a force that cannot be underestimated. In 2015, Tencent's WeChat Reading App was launched, and it quickly occupied the minds of users with "free reading throughout the venue" and social playing style. The following year, China Literature Group cooperated with Tencent to launch the QQ Reading App.
In 2019, Amazon shouted a self-deprecating slogan "Cover the Kindle, the face will be more fragrant." In the same year, Tencent launched the first generation of pocket reading.
Just like what Amazon said when it released its first Kindle: What Kindle sells is not a device, but a service. The same way is taken by pocket reading. The first generation of products only supports QQ reading, becoming an entity extension of the app. In terms of marketing techniques, pocket reading makes good use of the rebate of clock in: read for 150 consecutive days, and the full refund of 799 yuan of purchase is returned.
At that time, pocket reading had another key highlight - , the first domestic e-reader that supports operator networks, can make phone calls, send text messages, use browsers, plus the QQ reading function, and the size of its mobile phone, pocket reading can barely be considered as the first half of the small Lingtong.
However, such highlights have not been able to last for long. A few months after the release of Pocket Reading, Hisense launched a single-screen ink screen smartphone. Unlike the "selling service" of Kindle or Pocket Reading, manufacturers represented by Hisense are still focused on hardware and adopt an open Android system. Users can install any software they want to install - of course, they can also install QQ reading.
In order to enhance competitiveness, the second generation of Pocket Reading released in 2020 is more open, supporting WeChat Reading and Kindle in addition to QQ reading, but it is too late: it cannot beat the real ink screen mobile phone in the same product form, and the same "selling service" concept camp cannot beat the palm reading readers with rich product lines. It is reasonable to say that the current pocket reading is out of service.
Although there is no Kindle and pocket reading, other domestic players are still fighting hard around the competition in the electric paper book market.
In the first half of this year, new products of e-reader were launched in the domestic market. According to Aijiwei, the sales of readers-related products achieved a month-on-month growth of 19.8% in the second quarter, and smart office buildings achieved a month-on-month growth rate of more than 60% in the second quarter.
However, the Kindle is still the best-selling player, followed by two old players: Armite and Zhangyue .
Two years after Kindle entered China, Zhangyue officially entered the market and launched iReader in 2015. Aramide is the first batch of e-paper and book brands in China. It launched its first product in 2009, four years earlier than the Kindle entering China.
is also an old player. After Kindle entered the Chinese reshuffle market, the status of Hanwang is no longer as good as before. : Among the online market brand sales in the first quarter of 2022 counted by Luotu Technology, Hanwang only ranked 8th, and was even worse than Huawei, which just rushed into the track at the beginning of the year.
In terms of qualifications, Hanwang is one of the earliest e-paper book brands in China. The " Hanwang e-paper book " launched in the same year as Wenshi's first product. It was once a household name, and Han Wang also landed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange the following year. But later, the lack of content and product innovation made Han Wang defeated after Shanda Literature, Zhangyue and others entered the game. The entry threshold of
ink screen e-reader product is not high, allowing new players to start leveraging more technological innovations to further stir up market competition.
, which has good sales, is an example. In 2018, iFlytek and Shanda Literature cooperated to add iFlytek's intelligent voice technology to Shanda Literature's electronic paper book product Bambook. In 2019, iFLYTEK launched its own smart office book with flexible ink screens, priced at nearly 5,000 yuan. In the smart office book, iFLYTEK has stuffed functions such as handwriting, recording, real-time voice conversion of text, and translation into it. This product has also become the sales champion of electronic paper books for , JD.com, , Tmall 618, and Double 11 for three consecutive years.
Another iconic event is Huawei's entry this year, launching the MatePad Paper, priced starting from 2,999 yuan. Similar to iFLYTEK, Huawei's ink screen products are more like tablets that use ink screens, trying to break through the product boundaries of so-called "readers" and "electronic books".
For Tencent, which controls content resources, although pocket reading has left the market, it is still active in the world of e-readers in another way. The most important thing that cannot be ignored in is the WeChat Reading App, which has a very strong status.
In reading apps, WeChat Reading is the top player, but it is not the first. According to iResearch Qianfan’s monthly active users in November 2021, the number of monthly active users is Tomato free novel , with 62.02 million people. QQ Reading follows with 61.16 million monthly active users, followed by Qimao, Zhangyue, Yisou, WeChat Reading ranks sixth, with 15.32 million monthly active users.
However, with the strong influence of WeChat Reading App, closed or semi-closed electronic paper books such as Zhangyue, iFLYTEK, and Xiaomi Duokan all lit up the "green light" for WeChat Reading App. Last year, Zhangyue iReader began to support WeChat Reading App; iFlytek's latest R1Pro also has a built-in WeChat Reading App. In addition, it does not support downloading of other third-party software.
In comparison, WeChat Reading's own reader is the purest one. Whether it is the first generation product launched in 2021 with Arbor, which is the main opening and opening system, or the second generation non-arbor, cooperative product released after Amazon Kindle exited this year, WeChat Reading supports and only supports WeChat Reading, that is, it cannot download other reading apps, download other resources through the browser, or even transmit files through USB connection to the computer, or push them to the reader through the Internet.
You all support me, I just care about myself, and the strong position of WeChat Reading can be seen. Although WeChat readers have been low-key in pocket reading, Tencent's branch has long covered every corner of the e-reader market with the help of reading software.
Reference materials:
1. Taiwan Economic Daily: "E-Paper: The next "10 billion track"? 》
2. Zhitong Finance: "The global electronic paper complete market size in 2022 exceeded US$6.5 billion, a year-on-year increase of 65%"
3. Modern business new language: "WeChat Reader 2.0 is very good, but it may not be suitable for you"
4. Daily Economic News: "Online reading is still "online", why are electronic paper books "offline" one after another"
5. China Business News: "The giants gather in the "ink screen" and the industry explores the "breaking circle" path"
6. AI Finance and Economics: "Beating by Kindle and Apple, where is the former "electronics and paper book boss" now? 》
