Mobile internet age, user is king

Source: Internet
Author: User
Keywords Mobile Internet innovation business model

In the current era of mobile interconnection, creative consumers should be the fundamental of digital publishing, and if there is no consumer demand and creative consumption, then nothing can be talked about; content is the bond that sustains consumer relations, which is also the basis of business model, and marketing is a social network based, And the process of benign communication with consumers. and the digital publishing business model must really from the consumer's point of view, the need is to pay attention to consumer experience, meet consumer needs, respect the IQ of consumers, but also encounter encourage consumers to participate in innovation, and actively interact with consumers.

With the popularity of smartphones, tablets and paper-reading terminals, the digital publishing industry, like other information media industries, is ushering in the era of mobile internet. Whether it's a popular concept of "Solomo" (social, local localization, mobile mobility), or a dazzling array of apps on Apple, Android, and Amazon, they are all signalling a new pattern of information dissemination. According to the British Juniper Research Institute, waiting for 2016 years, on the mobile reading platform, E-book sales will likely reach 10 billion U.S. dollars, of which 30% are sold through the tablet, and 15% through the smartphone, and 55% through the various types of paper reader terminals. In other words, the mobile terminal is replacing PC gradually become the core communication platform of digital publishing. However, the domestic digital publishing business model is still the focus of the traditional Internet, and therefore lack of mobile interconnection brings opportunities and challenges of enough thinking.

As the oldest media industry in human society, the publishing industry has a mature and unique understanding of products, users and markets, which become the basis of the publishing business model. Although new technologies are constantly being integrated into the publishing industry, the understanding of the three basic elements that make up the industries-products, users and markets-remains limited to the print media framework and has not changed radically. Based on these three basic elements, this paper analyzes the industrial change and concept impact brought by mobile interconnection, and probes into how digital publishing develops industry cognition and business innovation in the system of merging, interacting and evolving with each other in a new and old technology, culture and business model.

From digital content to application products (APPS)

Traditional publishers have always believed in "content is King", this concept has been followed to the digital era, many publishers despise, and even disregard the digital carrier, communication channels and network culture brought about by the profound changes, always thought "ça", "Content-oriented, form supplemented by", "lack of content, the good digital media is also bricks" Wait a minute. Because of the limitations of the content of the king, in the face of sudden, strange and complex digital system, the traditional publishing house at a loss, because, although the content of the king, but the king in the digital map can not find his kingdom, because the traditional content and digital communication system is not docking, or not in accordance with the way the publisher envisaged.

At present, the mainstream products of digital publishing are still digital books, periodicals and newspapers. Domestic digital publishing business model, basically selling digital content at the core, publishers want to be in the digital age can sell e-books like paper books, newspapers and periodicals want to make content database and subscription fees to readers, but digital publishing practice has proved that these models are difficult to achieve profitability; is also at the expense of paper sales proceeds. The number of global e-book sales in 2011 reached $32 billion trillion, a figure that cheered many domestic publishers. However, it must be noted that this simple digitized, unprocessed content has very limited commercial value. Since traditional publishers have not created new added value in the digital environment, the content is actually sold cheaply; as a result, e-books and printed books have become substitutes for each other; Digital publishing and traditional publishing sales are on the decline – along with E-books, the slide in traditional book sales and the collapse of bookstores that spread across the globe. On the whole, traditional publishing has not benefited from the hype of E-books. Instead, the benefits are more dominated by digital operators, and content becomes cheap resources. Admittedly, content is indispensable to digital publishing, but if publishers are unable to create high-value applications and rely solely on the sale of digital content, traditional publishing will be relegated to the bottom of the exploited industrial chain in the era of mobile interconnection. It's like rice, pork and vegetables are the basis of good food, but the big price is the luxury hotel, chef cooking dishes, rather than raw materials.

From the digital content to the application product (APPS), it is not the change of word, but the change of concept and cognition, the problem of how the publishing industry creates content increment. Manufacturing content, is no longer the core business model of publishing, based on content to create high value-added application products is the core business. The digital content is single, the application product is integrated; The digital content is solid, the application product is dynamic; The digital content is planned according to the structure of the traditional publication, while the application product uses the digital form to customize knowledge, information, multimedia and service; The digital content is publisher-led and the application product is from the consumer demand ...

The simplest application product is multimedia (rich media) books, the current digital publishing applications are more such products. For example, the ipad version of the wilderness, which combines reading, sound painting and exquisite text design, became the first new generation of mobile e-books to be widely watched; logos the Bible "Apple", allowing Christians to read the Bible freely and quickly through the iphone, and restore the structure of the biblical non-linear narrative, So far they have introduced more than 40 different digital versions ... Although the current widely accepted mainstream model of rich media e-books, it is far from covering the full implications of "digital content depth processing" and "Digital application Products". Some western research institutions, such as the high and low technology group, the MIT Media Lab, and the computer Design laboratory at Kanekimeren University, are developing more intelligent (smart), interactive (interactive), touch-interaction (tangible), and book-making ( Breaking the book narrative structure and Knowledge dissemination framework) of the new generation of e-books. These research projects bring together IT experts, publishers and Social science researchers, follow the combination of technology and humanities, has produced a lot of revolutionary potential products, its innovation focused on the reader's high intelligence, creative interaction. It can be foreseen that these new applications based on pad platform have broad prospects in the fields of children's books, cooking, life science popularization, picture books and interesting education.

In addition to rich media books, there are other noteworthy, innovative digital publishing applications on the ipad platform. Cross-media e-books are another trend--books and pop music, video videos and so on on the mobile Internet platform to merge. 2010 "The Annual Publishing Innovation Award", by Panderwox (Padworx) digital media company produced interactive novel "Dekola: Stock Family Story (dracula:the official Stoker Accessibility)" A prototype of the future ipad book: A complete touchscreen interactive experience, more than 300 pages of original novel text, more than 6,000 illustrations, 21 songs made by many pop singers, dozens of hours of music and stereo effects, and fun "eggs" like the DVD interactive model, and so on. It can be said that this product has gone beyond a "book" concept, and become a huge, organically integrated Media Library, bringing readers a pleasant interactive reading experience. The Irish interactive Youth idol drama "Aisling Diary (Aisling's Diary)" is also a typical case of Cross-media fusion (Transmedia), which successfully integrates network communities, TV dramas, novels, the internet and mobile media, through continuous, cross-platform readers, The interaction between the producer and the content results in the three-dimensional, pluralistic and complex popular culture products. As the author of the system says, "we firmly believe that the active participation of the audience and the seductive interactive experience is becoming more and more important, it allows the audience to deeply into the plot, and the role and the plot with bitter, fun, hi, and sadness, mobile interconnection makes this kind of interaction can happen anytime, and become an integral part of the audience's life The development of this product Beactive company to make full use of its strong popularity, launched a series of games, application software and related entertainment products, the formation of a virtuous circle of industrial chain. In mobile interconnection platform, content is not the ultimate product, content sales revenue is not the ultimate goal, with content as a link, social media as a platform for the loyal audience is the most valuable resources. Through the excellent content, the establishment has the highly interactive, the high participation the online community, and through the virtual community further promotes the content dissemination and the content increment, this is the mobile interconnection age basic product pattern.

From readers to Creative consumers (Prosumer)

China's publishing industry has been marketization for more than more than 20 years, although the market-oriented publishing people understand the "reader is God" truth, but rooted in the minds of publishers of the elite complex is still deep-rooted, this focus on the readers and readers of the cognitive aspects of the needs. The reader is a very broad concept, but the publisher's understanding of the reader is generally narrower and more biased: they believe that readers-especially the public-are negative, naïve, vulgar, and prone to be "fooled", and so on. The vulgar, vulgar and pseudoscience of the best-selling books in the publishing industry has attracted much criticism, the root of which is that our publishers "underestimate" The taste and taste of the reader, only to cater to the vulgar tastes, or to rely on false propaganda hype to achieve the best seller. The incorrect understanding of readers also affects the content of digital publishing: For now, the best-selling digital publishing book, with pornographic content of the Internet literature occupies most of the land. I have to say, this is the embarrassment of China's digital publishing industry. If the digital publishing can not fundamentally change the reader's one-sided, or even wrong cognition, in the mobile internet era, its business model will be contrary to the future trend of communication.

After the Second World War, the western television media Research first broke through the former "passive audience (passive audience)" paradigm, emphasizing that the audience is not a puppet that can be fooled, educated and manipulated by the media, but a "positive audience" (Active audience )”。 After entering the 21st century, with the advent of the Internet media-especially the web2.0---the audience's participation in the media has reached an unprecedented level-user-created content is widely disseminated through social media, and in the gaming arena, users are extensively involved in innovation and research, User crowdsourcing becomes the new knowledge production mode. All these, so that the academic community to "audience/user" has a new understanding, resulting in the recent years of popular Western concept of "creative consumers" (Prosumer, the word will be producer and consumer into one, meaning, the consumer is the innovator, this article translates into creative consumers). In the era of mobile interconnection, publishers need to update their audiences ' perceptions and upgrade their business models based on the knowledge of creative consumers, especially in selling users to create content and encourage collaborative innovation among users.

In the packaging sales users to create content, with the domestic Shanda literature as the representative of the network literature industry has opened up a set of mature business system. Its business model, even for the Western publishing industry, also has a considerable value for innovation. Of course, the success of the Grand model has benefited from China's unique cultural and social background, such as the decline of traditional literary publishing, especially the vacancy of genre fiction, the relaxed censorship scale of internet literature, the Internet demographic dividend, and so on. In the Western publishing industry, in the face of a huge amount of user-generated content, especially the user self-help network Publishing (self-publishing) of the novel, its business model is usually based on the provision of professional publishing services to the author. In addition to Amazon's Self publishing platform (Direct Publishing), Web sites like create space and Lulu provide self-help publishers with a range of editorial processing, publishing operations, online promotions, and more. This model also introduces a considerable number of outstanding authors and works. Recently, the veteran publisher Penguin has also launched a self-help publishing service in its online genre novel community book Country, where the author not only enjoys professional publishing marketing, but also has the opportunity to work with the prestigious Penguin tradition Publishing department. The move is closely watched by the industry and means that traditional publishers are no longer evading the wave of publication and are actively involved in the commercialization of user-created content. Compared to the weak individual authors, veteran publishers or digital publishers have a strong market integration capabilities, book operation experience and technical platform support, which is conducive to the success of publishing books, this integration is the trend.

Western publishers have also developed some good models for collaborative innovation, whether it's education or public publishing. The education publishing giant Pearson Group, for example, for teachers and students to provide digital teaching materials customized services have been years of history. Teachers can organize their own editorial materials in a huge database of teaching materials according to their needs, and they can share their results online. The platform also encourages students to upload learning notes, share experience, etc. The famous online children's book publisher "Bedtime Stories" website launches "recording reading, Creating Memories" (record a books. Create a memory) "service, encourage parents in the ipad and other devices before, to children read child books, and video recording down, put on the site to share. For long readers, the interactive video is a lifelong memory, and for other small audiences, the humanization of the book makes the digital content richer and more interesting. It can be said that the sharing of reading video and online community interaction further enhance the reader as creators, users and users of the pleasant experience; For publishers, the user-uploaded video is an important added value to the content product. In these examples, readers are no longer passive content receivers, but active content creators and innovators, and the creative work of readers plays an equally important role as the creators of content, and makes content more responsive to the needs of consumers and more attractive.

From channel to social network marketing

The traditional publishing industry attaches importance to the distribution channel and relies on the self-evident, "the channel is king" The thought naturally also dominates the digital publishing industry, this centralism manifests in the intensified big platform tide. Mobile Internet era, the rise of Apple, Google Android and Amazon platform, so that domestic digital publishers see a new version of channel hegemony, and spare no effort to develop a large platform, fantasy in China to replicate the success of these giants model. As for the problems and Harms, the digital publication should surpass the e-commerce mode (published in the "Wide-angle" 2011 11) has been elaborated, here no longer repeat. What needs to be mentioned is that behind the so-called "big platform" such as Apple, its essence is not the channel hegemony, but the open idea and the consumer hegemony.

None of the three foreign platforms is open, that is, any content--whether it is a publishing giant, application developers, self-help publishing writers, or software start-ups--stay in cooperation, fair competition, share profits. More importantly, the core idea of these emerging platforms is to respect and maximize the interests of consumers – cheap and good, which is also the root cause of their success. Both Apple jobs and Amazon's Bezos have come to realize that the mobile internet era is the era of consumer hegemony, and that consumer power has become incredibly powerful through ubiquitous, omnipotent social networks. The mobile internet era is a time when producers and consumers are talking directly, and Apple, Google Android and Amazon offer a dialogue platform rather than a channel or middleman that traditional publishers understand. Accordingly, the marketing promotion of digital content is necessary to innovate and change.

Marketing must be social! In the era of mobile Internet, the function of social media has already surpassed "social", it is the most important channel of marketing promotion. While domestic publishers have begun to use social media for marketing-especially on Weibo platforms-these applications are still one-way-that is, provided unilaterally by publishers or content parties, and the creative participation of readers is extremely limited. Therefore, the current network marketing and traditional advertising and there is no essential difference, nothing more than the media. The effect is not satisfactory, is becoming a nuisance information for people to hate.

Social media is seen as a market system in the West, which has the function of social screening, evaluation and recommendation, which is more persuasive than any other advertisement. In other words, the social media market has formed the consumer's resultant force, lets "the word of mouth" become the most effective promotion strategy. None of the best-selling books in the Amazon self-help publishing industry has been successfully promoted and promoted through social media. Unlike traditional booksellers extravagantly, social media marketing requires a "four-and-a-ton" wisdom, which relies on accurate market positioning and high levels of communication between readers, and it is not "forward, lottery" so simple. At present, in the field of digital publishing is the most widely used in social reading, with the social label of PC platform (social tagging) Apple platform Flipboard and so on as the representative, this kind of social screening and the application of personal customization information will become the main way of content push in the mobile internet era. Publishers will gradually realize that the occupation of the so-called "channels"-bookstores shelves, home page recommendations-is no longer a core competitiveness, and its content products can appear in the individual reader's Mobile information interface is the key. The pattern of social media marketing in digital publishing is much more than that, although the industry's development innovation is still in its infancy, the case of great success is rare; however, it is certain that in the mobile internet era, the powerful user social network, Word-of-mouth between users will break the "channel is King" Myth. Digital publishers ' knowledge of new platforms such as Apple and Android also needs to jump out of the frame of "channel" thinking, as an open competition system, a platform for direct communication with readers.

Conclusion: Digital publishing ternary element in mobile internet age

In a speech, James Long, director of the Digital publishing division of Mike Milano, likened the boom in the digital publishing industry to the burning of fire. He points out that the burning of fire requires fuel, oxygen and heating; correspondingly, the popularity of the digital publishing industry relies on products, readers and markets. This analogy is a good interpretation of the relationship between the digital publishing ternary: complementary, indispensable. However, his positioning of products and readers still follow the traditional thinking, that is, the product (content)-oriented. In the mobile Internet era, the creation of consumers is the basic digital publishing, flame burning fuel, there is no consumer demand and creative consumption, all can not talk about; the content is the bond that sustains consumer relations, this kind of relation becomes the foundation of the business model, be like oxygen to flame; And marketing is a process of benign communication with consumers, just as the process of heating. The business model of digital publishing must really think from the consumer's point of view, pay attention to the consumer experience, meet the needs of consumers, respect the IQ of consumers, encourage consumers to participate in innovation, and actively interact with consumers.

A successful business model begins with a clear and accurate understanding of the industry, and it is necessary for digital publishers to think about the nature of the industry from a new, forward-looking perspective. Only by combining correct cognition and practical strategy can we develop successful commercial innovation and guide the upgrading of digital publishing industry to meet the opportunities and challenges in the era of mobile interconnection.

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Http://juniperresearch.com/reports/Mobile_Publishing

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This article is published in the "wide-angle" No. 201202, reproduced please specify the source!

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