Dong Yuhui sells books at low prices

Ever since the live broadcast room of "Yuhui Xingxing" became popular, Dong Yuhui started to sell books. Can this historically low price bring a new spring for physical books?

On the evening of January 23, @与辉同行 attracted much attention in the literary world due to a live broadcast. During the live broadcast, @与辉同行, who "did not shout 321 but only talked about literature", created a miracle in the literary world. In four hours, "People's Literature" sold nearly one million copies with a transaction amount of 17.85 million, which once exceeded the annual sales of "People's Literature".

Recently, at 8pm on January 31, Andy Lau and Ning Hao were guests at @与辉同行直播室 and talked with Dong Yuhui to promote "Mr. Red Carpet" which will be released on February 10, the first day of the Chinese New Year. According to the data from Heatwave, the maximum number of people online at the same time during the 93-minute live interview exceeded 1.8 million, and 600,000 19.9 yuan movie vouchers were sold out in a few minutes.

From books to movies, what are the characteristics of @与辉同行's live streaming? In the long run, will this be a breakthrough for @与辉同行's live streaming? Is short video live streaming really an ideal sales channel for the publishing industry?

1. The sales myth of "Traveling with Hui"

Dong Yuhui's personal live streaming style gives him certain advantages in selling cultural products.

On the evening of January 23, Shi Zhanjun, editor-in-chief of People's Literature, and writers Liang Xiaosheng and Cai Chongda were guests in the "Walking with Hui" live broadcast room, and had a conversation with Yu Minhong and Dong Yuhui on the theme of "My Literary Journey."

During the live broadcast, Dong Yuhui continued with his usual characteristics and frequently came up with golden sentences - "I walked thinly in the dark, no one cared, no one recognized me, until literature made the world see me and understand me!" This resonated with many fans.

Dong Yuhui's personal live broadcast style has always focused on the output of cultural knowledge, so he has repeatedly set records in the sale of books. After @与辉同行 officially started broadcasting, as Dong Yuhui's personal IP became more prominent, the audience's attention to the sale of books also increased.

Many fans of Dong Yuhui said: "Because Dong Yuhui has picked up the habit of reading again" and "I will buy it as long as it is sold"... Because of the moderate price and its cultural attributes, Dong Yuhui's fans have a strong enthusiasm for buying books, and thus created the sales myth of "People's Literature".

Image source: TikTok

Let’s go back to January 9, the day when @与辉同行 live broadcast room premiered. Judging from the products put on the shelves for the first broadcast, the products sold by @与辉同行 included fresh food, books and magazines, snacks and specialties, personal care, etc., most of which overlapped with the products selected by “东方精選”.

Judging from the traffic in the live broadcast room, @与辉同行 each live broadcast received over 100 million likes in the first few days, and the number of online users exceeded 100,000, which was far higher than the Oriental Selection Live Broadcast Room.

In terms of sales, the Relang data platform shows that in the Douyin live streaming sales list in the past week, @与辉同行直播室 ranked first, with sales exceeding 255 million in the past week, 80 million more than the third place @东方甄選. The purchasing power of "mothers-in-law" is evident.

Image source: Heatwave Data

On January 25, Yu Minhong, CEO of Oriental Selection, stressed that the diversion of @与辉同行 to @东方选 was not very obvious. According to observations, the positioning of @与辉同行 and @东方选 is somewhat different. The live broadcast room of @与辉同行 is more inclined to content e-commerce, highlighting Dong Yuhui's IP and being more "fan-friendly". On the other hand, @东方选 will be more inclined to shelf e-commerce, focusing on the product itself, especially the self-operated products of Oriental Selection.

@与辉同行, which has separated itself from its own products, needs to find its own rhythm. The promotion of People's Literature has, to a certain extent, differentiated @与辉同行 from @东方精選 in terms of the way it promotes products.

Afterwards, in the live broadcast on January 31, Dong Yuhui chose the format of a talk show and talked with Andy Lau and Ning Hao about the content of the movie. He placed the merchandise on the table in front of the conversation and interspersed ticket sales explanations during the interview. 600,000 movie vouchers worth 19.9 yuan were sold out in a few minutes.

Dong Ping, the ultimate beneficiary of Huanxi Media, one of the producers of "Mr. Red Carpet", revealed in an interview: "Cooperation with the top live broadcast rooms of e-commerce platforms is a win-win situation. Today's e-commerce platforms are no longer pure sales platforms. They need a good cultural experience environment; and movies need to let more audiences understand their connotation and charm."

From promoting People's Literature to interviewing Ning Hao and Andy Lau, @与辉同行 has explored a new and feasible way to promote products and has also transformed its own live broadcast room into a better cultural experience environment.

2. Publishing Houses and Short Video Live Streaming

For e-commerce anchors, selling millions of copies may not be surprising, but for the publishing industry, it may be a miracle.

Three years after the pandemic, the publishing industry has not gotten much better. At present, books are difficult to sell, especially in offline bookstores. It is understood that most of the current bookstores will appear in the form of coffee shops, restaurants and bars, and if they only sell books, it is difficult not to lose money. The "2023 Book Retail Market Annual Report" released by @Beijing Kaijuan on January 6 showed that the physical store channel showed negative growth in 2023, a year-on-year decrease of 18.24%.

Corresponding to offline, short video live e-commerce has become the main channel for book retail. From the early e-commerce period of JD.com and Dangdang shelves to short videos in live broadcast rooms, the sales channels of books have been constantly changing. The report stated that in 2023, short video e-commerce will show a high-speed growth trend, with a year-on-year increase of 70.1%, becoming the main driving force for the growth of the overall retail market.

"At this year's ordering conference, more and more new media customers participated, and there were a lot of influencers and distributors from platforms such as Weidian, Video Account, and Douyin." According to Jiemian News, Zhang Jinglei, director of the distribution department of Shanghai Ancient Books Publishing House, believes that new media sales are of great help to the distribution work of professional publishing houses.

For publishers, compared with the high commissions of anchors, self-broadcasting is undoubtedly the most ideal way to bring goods. Not only is the cost controllable, but it also has more advantages in terms of book selection and fan accumulation.

On Xiaohongshu, many publishing houses such as @CITIC Publishing, @Utopia, and @Peking University Press have opened Xiaohongshu accounts and stores, and created Xiaohongshu reader chat groups. Through these channels, they communicate with readers, helping publishing houses find readers, understand readers, and ultimately achieve success.

Image source: Xiaohongshu

In addition to their own accounts, publishers are also laying out an e-commerce account matrix on short video platforms. According to Relang data, CITIC Press has a series of accounts including @中信阅读会, @中信童书精选, and @中信出版好书.

For publishers, live streaming to sell books is nothing new. As early as June 2021, @浙江文学出版社 began to use Douyin account to live stream and sell books. According to data released by Douyin e-commerce, Douyin e-commerce sold more than 400 million books in 2023, with sales increasing by 127% year-on-year. "Storm" and "Crocodile" became the most popular new books of the year.

In the past year, more than 50 publishing houses, including CITIC Press, Posts and Telecommunications Press, Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, 21st Century Publishing House, and Zhonghua Book Company, have doubled their sales on Douyin Mall. It can be said that in 2024, live streaming book sales have been accepted and practiced by most publishing houses.

3. Discounts can make or break you

Although live short video channels are now an important channel for book sales, for publishers, cooperating with anchors is often risky.

For example, some anchors will seek the lowest price on the entire network to attract readers, but this is very detrimental to the long-term development of the book industry, and the profit margin is very low.

The "2023 Book Retail Market Annual Report" shows that in 2023, the overall retail market price of books (the total price of all books) turned from negative to positive year-on-year, but the actual price (the actual price of books sold at a certain discount rate) decreased by 7.04% year-on-year.

Image source: "Beijing Open Book" public account

The difference between positive and negative is due to the changes in retail book discounts. The report shows that the retail discount in 2023 dropped from 66% in 2022 to 61%.

On the one hand, discounted books contribute to the overall sales increase of books. But on the other hand, as low-priced books such as "1 yuan books" continue to appear in live broadcast rooms, the "price war" of books has caused many books to even fall below the conventional break-even point of books. In 2023, Dong Yuhui also sold "1 yuan books" and caused controversy in the publishing industry.

As Dong Yuhui said in his live broadcast room, "Low grain prices hurt farmers, and the same goes for books." Low-price vicious competition, pirated books, and low-quality books entering the market have occurred frequently in recent years, squeezing out legitimate books and independent publishers.

In addition, from the perspective of the sales life cycle of new books, the sales time of new books in short video e-commerce channels is shorter.

The "2023 Book Retail Market Annual Report" shows that among the new books sold through short video channels, books that are only sold for one month account for 16.4%, and those that are no longer sold six months after the first sale account for more than 60%. The life cycle of new book sales through other channels is more continuous and lasting.

In general, the current short video live streaming channels have both advantages and disadvantages in terms of book sales, and the number of fans of publishers’ own accounts and matrix accounts is also constantly accumulating.

When books sold for more than just low prices attract consumers, perhaps publishing workers can worry less - and prevent "1 yuan books" from dragging down the already struggling publishing industry.

Author: Guang Ye

Source: WeChat public account: TopKlout (ID: TopKlout)