Struggling with difficulties
“In 2021, publishing activities were severely affected by the impact of Covid-19, many publishers have been interrupted for a long time, they have had no revenue, the business recoverability was still low”, the publishing industry in 2021 was judged by the Ministry of Information and Communications (IC).
The data from the Ministry of Information and Communications showed that, in 2021, publishing revenue was estimated at VND 2,600 billion, down slightly from VND 2,665 billion in 2020, a sharp decrease compared to the revenue of VND 4,326 billion in 2019. In 2021, The Department of Publication, Print and Release (Ministry of Information and Communications) has issued 4,515 certificates of publishing registration (down 11%), granting the publishers 5 registration certificates for publishing and issuing electronic publications.
The movement and stores’ closing as required by the epidemic severely affected the business of publishers. Publishing units, a series of bookstores and supermarkets in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City must close completely. For example, Nha Nam closed 6 bookstores, revenue only reached 76% compared to 2020. The whole year’s revenue of Nha Nam gained only VND 105 billion, down 23% compared to the plan of VND 130 billion. Or like Fahasa, for the first 6 months of 2021, 80/117 bookstores had to close, the revenue of April and May 2021 was likely zero…
Facing with such difficulty, publishers have increased their release channels, sold books online.
Said Mr. Pham Nam Thang, Acting General Director of Fahasa, as the restriction of direct sales during the epidemic, Fahasa’s e-commerce developed rapidly. E-commerce revenue in 2021 will increase 3 times compared to 2019. Although the boom in revenue in the e-commerce channel could not fully compensate for the system, it was an existential fulcrum for book publishers during the epidemic.
Said Ms. Nguyen Kim Thoa, Director of Tan Viet Cultural and Education Joint Stock Company, Tan Viet has promoted selling books on online channels, implementing certain solutions such as developing e-commerce, promoting book sales to customer groups that are enterprises, corporations, agencies and organizations. In addition to the big trading floors, Tan Viet also have their books to be online sold by individual dealers. Tan Viet Bookstore App has been invested and implemented for a while, it is being upgraded and will be an active channel to sell books directly to customers in 2022.
Said Mr. Tran Chi Dat, Director – General Editor of the Information and Communication Publishing House, they have focused on improving and introducing books on the e-commerce platform for paper books (Book365.vn) and electronic publishing platform (ebook365.vn); putting the digital transformation plan into the action program of “Digital transformation in the development strategy of the publisher”.
“Out of the 601 books implemented by them in the past year, paper books consist of 319 and ebooks consist of 282. The total number of ebooks gained 47%, while the assigned plan was 40%”, said Mr. Dat.
What to expect for 2022
The publishing industry is considered as a non-essential industry, whether they are books or textbooks for students – therefore, it is important to “survive” in the context of complicated and unpredictable developments of the epidemic, it is difficult in transporting goods, limiting communication and gathering people, increasing paper prices, increasing costs, the existence of illegal book printing, etc., forcing publishers to find the new solutions. The new door of breakthrough development in 2022 that publishers expect is electronic publishing.
Mr. Tran Chi Dat said that one of the obvious outstanding problems in 2021 is that there are not many entities participating in the implementation of electronic publications. The development of electronic publishing is still slow due to the fact that the technology application has not met the requirements of digital transformation.
Said Mr. Dat, publishers need to quickly change the method of publishing and electronic publications in a modern direction, in line with the integration trend, upgrading and perfecting the data management system infrastructure of the Publication, Printing and publishing field are applied to ensure that the requirements for digital transformation.
Thereof, the increase of publishers and issuers participating in the implementation of electronic publications; major investment in publications of important and high value serving the nation development; promoting the linkages between publishers and strong issuers, thereby forming a link chain capable of leading the market.
Said Mr. Vu Trong Dai, Director of Omega Plus Book Company, the entities need to change their ideas, instead of holding on to paper books, consider paper books as the top, now it is urgent to accelerate the digital transformation process. The data from Ho Chi Minh City market during the past year shown that although online sale of books was applied due to social distancing, delivery and transportation were stuck and congested. Meanwhile, digital content products with different formats possess outstanding advantages, are not limited by the physical nature of delivery or traffic problems, even borderless.
Said Ms. Nguyen Kim Thoa, in the context of the complicated Covid-19 situation, if the market purchasing power is limited, electronic publishing will be the escape way and the long-term development orientation of book publishing and releasing entities. This is also consistent with the global general trend in the recent years.
Vice Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam has just signed the Decision No. 2219/QD-TTg approving the National Book Program for the period of 2022-2026. The program aims to publish and republish 500 books in the form of electronic publications.
In addition, from 2022 to 2026, a website and application software on computer and mobile phones to store and distribute e-books of the National Book Program will be developed.
Source : Tinnhanhchungkhoan
