Comment: EBOOK--Network Extension of Publishing Industry

It is also a revolution in the publishing world that the conversion from molecular books to e-books is achieved by saying goodbye to lead and fire. However, to achieve this revolution, there is still a long way to go

[Internet Weekly News] No one would suspect that online publishing will be the direction of the publishing industry. Compared with paper publications, online publications have the advantages of convenient storage, quick search, no logistics, no paper, and resource conservation. In foreign countries, more well-known publishing groups such as Warner and Simon have all made active attempts in EBOOK. Simon company last year

It launched 100 classic EBOOKs. EBOOK also attracted widespread attention from publishers in Europe, Japan, South Korea and other countries and regions.

EBOOK market

For the development of EBOOK, most people have a more optimistic attitude. The American Publishing Association predicts that by 2005 e-book sales will account for 6% of the publishing industry's sales, and IDG will make a 10% forecast. Some people even asserted that the publishing industry will become the world of EBOOK in 2030. By then, EBOOK's sales will exceed 90%.

In China, EBOOK's readership is also a big number. In July and November of last year, the results of the survey on the status of Chinese netizens published twice by CNNIC showed that approximately 45.99 percent of netizens searching for Internet access are looking for EBOOK. The top ranked Internet users are most dissatisfied with the service is the EBOOK too few online, in the survey results in November, netizens holding this view accounted for 39.34% of the total number of Internet users. One aspect of this result shows that in the face of the rapid development of the Internet, the Chinese publishing industry has been slow to perform. On the other hand, it indicates the broad prospects of the Chinese EBOOK market.

Publishing industry puzzles

For the development of EBOOK, the publishing industry has always held a skeptical attitude. There are three major technical factors that affect the development of EBOOK: Internet technology, display technology, and DRM copyright protection technology.

For most people, reading on the screen is not very comfortable. This is because of the lower screen resolution. The resolution of a general paper book is at least 300 DPI or more, and the resolution of a notebook computer's liquid crystal display usually can only reach 80 DPI. In addition, the constant flashing of the computer screen is also one of the reasons causing people's uncomfortable eyes. DRM is also the protection of digital copyright, which has become the biggest obstacle for the publishing industry to enter EBOOK. For publishers, if the problem is not resolved properly, the sale of EBOOK will not be able to be realized. In other words, publishing EBOOK must be a losing trade.

In China, the development of EBOOK is also plagued by issues such as bandwidth resources and online payment. Professor Peng Songjian, vice chairman of the China Publishing Industry Association and president of Peking University Press, summarized the four main bottlenecks that hinder the development of EBOOK in China: bandwidth resources, readership, online payment, and copyright protection. From the perspective of the development of the previous stage, domestic Internet companies with high enthusiasm for EBOOK are basically Internet companies. However, because of the special circumstances of China's publishing industry, Internet companies do not have copyright resources themselves, which to some extent hinders the development of these companies. The publishing houses with huge copyright resources are mostly holding a wait-and-see attitude towards the development of EBOOK. People’s Spacetime Network is an online publishing company invested by the People’s Publishing House. The company launched the concept of online publishing a year ago when China’s Internet was hottest. Today, its online publishing is still unsatisfactory. Peng Songjian said: “We can't blame publishers for moving too slowly. For publishers, entering online publications means huge investments in funds, personnel, and other aspects. If they don’t have the conditions to invest blindly, they will only Unnecessary loss."

From the perspective of the overall development of the industry, technological changes will often play a huge role in promoting the development of the industry.

Although the global Internet industry has entered a period of low ebb, the application and environment of the Internet have developed more mature than a year ago. The development of liquid crystal display has also made some progress. At present, the resolution of the liquid crystal display can already reach about 100 DPI. In addition, there are more steady-state LCD screens without flickering, so that people feel better when they read with the screen than before. With regard to the protection of intellectual property, the current technology is also very mature. The maturity of the three major technologies basically determines that EBOOK will have a very rapid development momentum.

At home, Peking University Founder Electronics Co., Ltd. officially released Epaq's comprehensive solution, Apabi, at the end of April. The program organically combines authors, publishers, publishers, online bookstores, and readers into five major technical issues: digital copyright protection, EBOOK secure distribution and quantitative statistics, and digital library technology. It has properly restored the flow of traditional books from publishers to distributors to bookstores to readers. The publishing house has the right to decide on what book to choose, when it will be released, how much it will be priced, which bookstore to sell, when it can be sold, and when it can be sold, and so on, so that the publishing house can still become the protagonist in the era of EBOOK. Become a central part of EBOOK. The EBOOK downloaded through Apabi can only be read on the downloaded PC or laptop, and cannot be copied or printed. For the sale of EBOOK, Apabi also provides accurate quantitative tools.

APABI's Shock

The interests and status of all aspects of the publishing industry in EBOOK are better handled. Apabi's release has aroused great repercussions in the industry. In order to promote the development of EBOOK in China more quickly, Founder Electronics adopts an annual fee payment + ASP method when promoting the Apabi program. The publisher only needs to pay a certain annual fee (29,900 yuan). Founder Electronics Co., Ltd. With a few percent of each book's earnings, publishers can achieve online publication of books. In this way, publishers and websites do not need to pay a lot of money at one time, which relatively reduces investment risks. For publishers who have difficulties in operating and maintaining websites, Founder Electronics can also provide ASP services. That is to say, publishers will not increase too much manpower to do EBOOK.

In fact, prior to the official release of Apabi, Founder Electronics had launched the “EBOOK North Conference” campaign on the Peking University campus network. Beginning on December 28, 2000, Master Bei students can download copyright-protected e-books made by Founder Apabi from the Peking University Campus Network Peking University Library e-book channel. After the opening of the channel, it attracted great attention from the master students of North China. According to statistics, more than 800 books were downloaded on the first day of the trial operation, and the average daily downloads of four or five hundred books are still maintained.

The success of the trial operation encouraged the enthusiasm of publishers and Internet companies to enter EBOOK. When a large amount of publicity has not yet been carried out, Founder Electronics has signed cooperation agreements with more than a dozen publishing houses such as Electronic Industry Press, Peking University Press and Higher Education Press, as well as renowned online bookstores such as Baku and Netease.

As the user of the earliest Apabi program, Mr. Madma, director of the Commerce Department of Boku, believes that Apabi is currently the first complete and commercial EBOOK solution in China. Although its stability needs to be tested by time, it is used. It is very simple and it is attractive to users. In addition, because Fang is in the domestic publishing industry, most of the publishers currently use Founder's typesetting system, so the Founder EBOOK solution can give people a sense of trust.

The publication of Apabi has given many publishers the opportunity to compete with new attitudes. Representative of the Jiangxi Publishing Group said during the signing of the company with Founder that in the past Jiangxi Publishing Group had also published a lot of good books. However, because of geographical location, few people knew Jiangxi Publishing Group. In the Internet era, Jiangxi Publishing Group hopes to grab it. Have the opportunity to establish their brand very early. In this regard, Xinjiang Publishing House has similar feelings. Mr. Peng Songjian pointed out: "At present, powerful publishing houses may be eliminated in the future market competition if they do not keep an eye on online publishing."

From a development point of view, Apabi's shock to the publishing industry goes far beyond that. With the development of broadband networks, the days of voice and video transmission on the Internet are not too far away. In other words, EBOOK in the future may not only include text and pictures. EBOOKs with animation and audio multimedia may appear. The definition will also change accordingly. In this regard, if publishers do not have enough knowledge, they may feel unprepared.

Development anxiety

In an interview with the publishing industry, the reporter felt that although most people have a positive attitude toward the development of EBOOK, there are still many worries in the industry when they actually enter the EBOOK field.

In the research and promotion process of Apabi, Mr. Peng Songjian has made great contributions. “When Founder was preparing to conduct research on the EBOOK solution, Zhou Jin, General Manager of the Founder's Electronic Network Communications Business Unit, took me to consult with researchers. I gave them a lot of encouragement and thought that they should do it. This is the direction of future development. In the course of the subsequent research, we also communicated with Apabi's R&D personnel and testers several times, and put forward our opinions and ideas from the demand side of the publishing house.After the initial completion of Apabi's R&D last year, I helped Founder to organize the publishing house. Participated in the warm-up meeting of Apabi, this year when Apabi was running on the campus of Peking University, our publishing house first took out more than 30 influential books in the Academician’s library for people to download and use. In the near future, we are also preparing to produce 100 EBOOK..." Talking about Apabi's development process, Peng Songjian not only knew everything, but also had a unique sense of pride among participants.

It should be said that for the development of EBOOK, Peng Songjian’s viewpoint is more advanced. Even so, Beijing University Press still encountered a lot of resistance during the implementation of EBOOK. Peng Songjian said: "I have already signed a cooperation agreement with Founder to launch 100 EBOOKs, but when they arrive at the editors, they have no motivation. There are editorial responses. After converting the layout of the paper book into EBOOK, many The post-made words are lost, and it is a lot of work to fill in these words.In addition, some editors are afraid that the publication of EBOOK will affect the circulation of paper books, and they are reluctant to convert their edited books. For EBOOK."

The status of Beijing University Press is representative. At the Apabi seminar held by Founder, many press representatives raised such concerns: How large is EBOOK's readership, and can it make publishers profitable? Entering EBOOK for publishers not only means software investment, but also means various investments such as servers and bandwidth resources. When will these investments be recovered? Is it worth the investment? What exactly are the needs of online readers? ......

Not only the publishing house, but also the first Boco company that has achieved real cooperation with Founder, is also worried. Madang said: "At present, the method used by Founder in the statistical book market flow is: the publisher stores the contents of the book in the server of Founder, and the distributor then requests the book from this server, so that the book sold by the Internet bookstore Quantity, there is statistics in Founder, not to be a little false.This is a very good way for copyright protection, but from the perspective of long-term development, as the provider of the solution, the power of Founder seems too big If this market is enlarged by everyone in the future, and Founder acquires the monopoly status of this market as an exclusive company, then if Founder wants to increase the annual rent or draw percentage, no one user can have equality with Founder. The status of dialogue."

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