以下是发言的主要内容：

大家好。很高兴与大家一起探讨当前中国图书市场的发展趋势，并为国际合作伙伴进入中国市场提供建议。

北京开卷信息技术有限公司成立于1998年，我们创建了大数据系统来监测中国各地的图书销售情况，目前我们的采样数据来自全国8000余家实体书店和网上书店。我们与中国的出版单位和书店都保持密切合作：我们为书店提供全面库存管理支持，帮助出版单位监测市场的实时销售走势，为投资基金公司提供识别市场机会的服务，为业内提供畅销书排行等及时的书业信息等。2017年，我们开始了国际合作业务，在座各位可能已经在《出版视角Publishing Perspectives》杂志上看到过开卷的图书市场报告。过去几年，我们也一直与西方出版商和书店密切合作，为他们提供在中国，以及整个亚洲的合作和投融资咨询服务。

    首先，我向大家介绍下中国的图书市场概况。

    中国纸书零售市场保持稳定增长，在过去6年里，整体市场规模扩大了一倍。2018年监控码洋接近900亿人民币，约合127亿美元；2019年上半年同比上升10.82%，继续保持两位数的增长。

    最近几年的增长主要归功于网店渠道的较高增长速度。在这里你可以看到，2016年是网上书店和实体书店的转折点，当时网上书店销量超过了实体书店的销售。今年上半年，开卷监控数据显示，与去年同期相比，网上书店的销售额增长了24.19%，而实体书店的销售额下降了11.72%，实体店继续呈现负增长态势。

这里网上销售渠道包括京东、天猫和独立网上书店。另外，亚马逊中国已于2019年年中正式结束其在中国的纸书销售业务。2019年上半年，在中国有超过9万部新书出版。与2018年同期相比，下降了6.22%。自2012年以来，纸书零售市场的年度品种数保持稳定。当中国2000年首次加入WTO时，中国的市场经济和出版行业专注于出版书目的数量。如今，中国政府和出版单位都更注重质量而非数量。

 在过去的二十年里，我们发现纸书的价格上涨很快。2019年上半年，新书的平均定价为48.6元，中间价为45元。价格上涨的原因中通货膨胀是一个因素，同时需要指出的是网上销售的折扣并没有反映在我们监控的图书定价上。

    那么，中国图书市场最畅销的图书类别是什么呢? 可以看到，童书在纸书零售市场占领先位置。但事实上，如果将其他所有领先的类别包括社科、教辅教材、科技类、语言类结合起来看中国市场，则不难发现，中国的图书市场是以学习和实用类图书为主导的。

    接下来带大家了解一下中国的电子书和有声读物市场。在今天的中国市场，电子书和有声书有5种主要的销售模式，其中有一些是中国特有的。

    首先当然是传统的单本销售模式。需要注意的是，中国数字图书的价格相对于西方来说比较低。数字图书的售价通常不到国外数字图书价格的一半。第二，有许多非常成功的数字平台免费提供带有广告的电子书。第三，在电子阅读或听书市场中，近年来发展最快的模式可能是订阅模式，几乎所有领先的电子书和有声书发行平台都引入了订阅模式。第四，中国自出版市场中，网络文学的影响巨大，使得中国成为世界最大的自出版市场之一。网络文学最初的商业模式是按章付费，如今网络文学也广泛采用订阅模式。最后，英语学习的需求为购买外国版权内容提供了机会。

所以，我猜你们都在想，“与中国出版商、书店和作者合作的最佳方式是什么?”在此，我有几个建议。

但首先，让我们快速了解一下外国作家在中国的影响力。正如你所看到的投影上的开卷数据，在2019年上半年动销的图书品种中，有13%都是来自外国作者的作品，这些作品的销售码洋占总体市场23%，销量占总体市场20%。为了让大家更好地理解，我们根据比例估算外国作家的市场总额约为30亿美元。

那么，对国际合作方来说，如何也从这30亿美元中获得一席之地呢？

我们建议您与中国本土的合作伙伴合作来向中国售出版权。这主要是出于语言和文化的考量。几乎所有与中国编辑的讨论都是用中文进行的，这一过程在很大程度上是由中国独特的文化价值观决定的。合作伙伴中，中国有许多优秀的版权代理机构可供选择。我想在座的大多数都已经在和这些版权代理机构合作。同时，开卷作为一家大数据公司，我们也建议您采用以数据为基础的方式来识别和跟进您选择的中国出版单位。对此，开卷也很乐意帮助大家，开卷的数据平台目前有超过15000名中国编辑在使用，他们也在寻找与外国版权方合作的机会。

最后，考虑到过去几百年西方积累的畅销书好书，在过去20年中已经被大量引进中国，中国对外国书籍的版权需求实际上正在放缓。中国市场现在更注重质量，中国原创图书内容的质量也越来越高。另外，中国经济的增长使世界对文化的兴趣持续提升。

在座各位作为图书版权代理商，过去你们在向中国销售图书版权方面做得很成功。但现在在你们面前有一个新的机会，就是利用各位优秀的业务能力和已有的销售网络，向全球销售中国高质量图书的版权。

    在此，我为大家列举三位中国杰出的儿童读物作家：

杨红樱是中国当代最畅销的儿童文学作家，在过去13年里，根据开卷的市场预测，她的作品已经卖出超过1亿6千万册。她也是最受孩子们喜爱的作家，可以被比作是美国的罗杰斯先生（Mr.Rogers），陪伴孩子成长20年。

    另一位畅销童书作家沈石溪被誉为“动物故事大王”。至今他已经出版40多本关于动物故事的书，根据开卷监测数据估计总销量已经达到6600多万册。他的畅销书《狼王梦》至今已经销售了2000多万册。另外，他的著作中有10多个章节被收录到中国的中小学教材中。

李淼也是近年来备受家长和儿童喜爱的作家，他用浅显易懂的语言帮助各个年龄层读者理解复杂的科学问题，他所写的《给孩子讲量子力学》是最畅销的科普读物之一。

    大家一定知道，几周前我们庆祝了新中国成立70周年，世界上有数百万甚至数十亿的人为中国在艺术、科学和基础建设工程方面取得的成就感到震撼。在我看来，中国正处在自己的伟大复兴之路。看看我们的现代化城市，我们令人惊叹的建筑艺术，我们新的桥梁、隧道、机场和高速铁路。大家可以感受到中国的飞速发展。如果大家有兴趣了解中国、进入中国市场，就需要读更多我们的书，了解中国文化。尽管新中国只经历了70年的发展与变迁，但中华民族已经积累了五千年的文明史，我们有很多伟大的故事与世界分享。

欢迎到中国来开展与我们的合作！

Here comes the speech note:

Hello everyone. It’s a pleasure to be here with you all to discuss current trends in China’s expanding book market and also to offer suggestions for international participants entering China’s market.

Openbook was established in 1998. We have created a big data system that monitors the sales of books throughout China. Our sources today include around 8,000 physical and online bookstores. We are working very closely with both publishers and booksellers. We help booksellers predict inventory levels. We help publishers identify real time trends in the market, and we are helping investment funds identify market opportunities. Openbook is the authoritative source of data for Chinese book market. Our monthly best-selling lists are highly anticipated. In 2017, we started our international business. You may have seen some of our monthly market reports in Publishing Perspectives. Over the past couple of years, we have been working closely with western publishers and booksellers to identify partnership, investment and joint venture opportunities in China and throughout Asia.

Let’s take a quick look at the overall book market in China.

China’s overall book market is continuing to demonstrate impressive growth. In the last 6 years, the market has doubled in size. Last year, OpenBook tracked nearly 90B RMB in sales or approximately 12.7B US dollars. And, the growth is continuing. In the first half of this year, sales are up 10.82% over the same period last year.

Much of the recent growth is attributed to the explosive growth in Online sales. Here you can see that the inflection point in Online vs Physical bookstores took place in 2016 when online sales (highlighted in light blue) eclipsed physical bookstore sales (highlighted in darker blue).  In the first half of this year, OpenBook recorded that Online bookstores grew at a rate of 24.19% over a comparable period last year while sales at physical bookstores declined by 11.72%

Please note that online store channels include JingDong, Tmall, DangDang, and independent online bookselling retailers.

Please also note that Amazon China has officially ended its print book business in midterm 2019.

Over 90 thousand new titles were introduced in the first half of 2019. This is down 6.22% compared to same period in 2018. The annual number of new titles in the retail market has been pretty stable since 2012.

When China first entered the WTO in 2000 its new market economy and the publishing industry was focused on quantity of books to meet unsatisfied demand.  Today, the Chinese government and publishers are focusing more on quality rather than quantity.

Over the past two decades, we have found that the list book price is going up really fast.

The average list price of all new books in the first half of 2019 was48.6 RMB, and the median list price was 45 RMB. Inflation is a factor here but it is also important to point out: that discounts in online sales are not reflected on this book price.

So what are the best-selling categories in the Chinese Book Market? Take a look at the purple segmenthere.

Here you can see the dominate position represented by Children’s books. But in fact if you combine all of the other leading categories including Social Sciences, Study Guides, Science and Technology and Languages, you can see that the Chinese Book industry is firmly rooted in LEARNING.

Let’s take a quick look at the eBook and audiobook market in China.

The dark blue columns are audiobooks and light blue columns areebook

According to iMedia Research, audiobook sales reached 4.63 billion RMB in 2018,  a year over year increase of 42.9%.

Meanwhile, eBook sales increased 3.7% to 5.6 billion RMB in 2018.

–the explosive growth in audiobooks is a remarkable trend in China. And not surprisingly, there is a fierce level of competition amongst audiobook platforms. We have recently witnessed an enormous level of innovation with the eBook platforms and the unique reading experiences that they are providing their customers through their engaging platforms. One of my personal favorites is Wechat Reading. Wechat reading allows me to see what my friends and colleagues have read and what they are currently reading. This makes it easier to engage in a broader conversation about the ideas presented in the stories. Sometimes before meeting with a client I will check to see what they are reading so that we have more to talk about.

There are 5 primary models for selling eBooks and Audiobooks in China today – a couple of which are somewhat unique to China.

First of course is the traditional a la carte model. Note – the pricing in China tends to quite low compared to western practices. Digital editions are typically sold at less than half the price that digital booksellers outside of China may charge.

Second, there are a number of ENOURMOUSLY successful digital platforms that are providing digital editions of books for free with advertisements.

Third, probably the fastest growing way to read or listen to books is through subscriptions. The subscription model has been recently introduced by almost all of the leading eBook and audiobook distribution platforms.

Fourth, China’s self-publishing world known as on-line literature is one of the largest self publishing platforms in the world. Today, there are an estimated 430million readers and last year’s revenue has been estimated to be over 1 billion US Dollars. The initial business model for this platform was pay-per-chapter, although today online literature is broadly adopting the subscription model.

Finally, English Language Learning has become a popular platform for selling foreign rights. For example, Earlier this year we helped a leading English Language Learning platform acquire the rights to the Agatha Christies series.

So, I imagine that you all are wondering, “What is the best way to partner with Chinese Publishers, booksellers and authors. I have several suggestions.

But First – let’s take a quick look at the impact that foreign authors have in China today. As you can see, 13% of the books offered for sale in China today are from foreign authors. These represent 23 % of all sales and 20% of the units sold in China. To put that in perspective, we estimate the total market for foreign authors is around 3 billion US Dollars a year.

So, what is the best way for you to get a piece of this 3billion dollar pie? – What is the best way to sell your rights to Chinese Publishers?

We recommend working with a local partner. This is due largely to language and culture. Nearly all discussions with editors are conducted in Chinese. The process is largely shaped by China’s unique cultural values. There are many fine Literary Agencies to choose from in China. Most of you I assume are already working with one of these.  

As a big data company, we of course recommend that you take a data driven approach to identifying, engaging and following up with the publishers that you select to work with.

And, OpenBook is also happy to help you. Our Data platform is used today by more than 10,000 Chinese editors who are looking for insight and opportunities.

This past year we negotiated the sale of the Chinese rights to the 70 year old Classics Illustrated series for over one million dollars to a Chinese Publisher. This past year, we also assisted a western bookseller with its market entry strategy in China involving multiple joint venture partners and we assisted a Chinese Publisher in its evaluation of a 100 million dollar investment in a western partner,

Next- Have you considered importing your books in your local language or perhaps translating them yourself into Chinese? To do this, you first need to work with an authorized importer. The books are reviewed for market suitability and then offered to online and physical bookstores. While the sales of imported books is still relatively small, many Chinese booksellers are now expanding their inventories. We are currently working with a couple of best-selling American’ authors who have translated their works in Chinese on their own and they are now preparing to sell them through an importer such as CTIBOOK or licensing the audiobook rights to Chinese partners

And finally, let’s consider that China has already discovered the best-selling books that the west has produced over the past several hundred years and demand for foreign titles in China is actually slowing down.

China is now focused on quality. And an increasing number of these quality titles are being produced by Chinese authors.

Consider as well, China’s economic expansion and the world’s interest in learning more about Chinese culture.

As agents and scouts you have been successful in selling books into China. We now see an opportunity for you to use your skills to sell the BEST books from China through your network.

Let me present some examples.

Yang Hongying is China’s best-selling children’s author in modern history. She has sold more than 160 million books in the past 13 years. She has been compared to America’s Mr. Rogers with her remarkable ability to communicate with children and to help them understand the feelings they experience during life’s transitions.

Shen Shixi is another best-selling children’s author in China. He is known as the “King of Animal Stories”. He has written over 40 titles about animal stories for children. To date, he has sold more than 66 million copies. His best selling title – Dream of Being a Wolf King has sold more than 20 million copies.

Chapters from more than 10 titles of his work have been selected and compiled into primary and middle school textbooks in China.

Li Miao is another very popular children’s author. Professor Li’s works have made it easy for everyone to understand complex science topics. One of his current best-selling books is Quantum Mechanics for Kids.

You know, a couple of weeks ago we celebrated the 70^th anniversary of China. Many millions or perhaps billions of people around the world are becoming aware of our recent achievements in the arts and sciences. In my view, China is in the midst of its own Renaissance. You need to see our new cities, our amazing architecture, our new bridges, tunnels, airports, and high speed railway. You need to see first-hand our artistic developments and of course if you are interested in understanding China you need to read more of our books.  

While we just celebrated our 70^th anniversary, you all know that China’s civilization is thousands of years old and we have many great stories to share with the rest of the world.

Welcome to China!

会后，法兰克福主办方会展也对蒋艳平女士的演讲进行了多次报道：

After the meeting, Ms. Jiang’s speech has been reported by multiple media, including Publishing Perspectives and Frankfurter Buchmesse, the sponsor of the Frankfurt Book Fair: