As a representative and pioneer in the traditional publishing industry, Xinhua Bookstore has always been a cultural landscape in cities all over the country. Xinhua Bookstore will not close down or be eliminated. This is due to both historical and cultural factors as well as commercial market factors.
Many people may not know that Xinhua Bookstore is actually a state-owned enterprise, and it is an old state-owned enterprise with a strong historical and cultural atmosphere. Xinhua Bookstore is a large-scale wholesale enterprise of central first-class books and audio-visual publications, affiliated with China Publishing Group. It was founded on April 24, 1937, the second day of World Book Day that year. It was first located in Qingliang Mountain in Yan'an.
Xinhua Bookstore went through the war years together with the party and the country. After going through twists and turns and hardships, it emerged from the ashes and has made it to today. During the Kuomintang War, Xinhua Bookstore played a huge role in the party's strategic propaganda.
In 1948, Mao Zedong personally wrote an inscription for Xinhua Bookstore, which is the name of Xinhua Bookstore we see today. After the founding of New China, Xinhua Bookstores developed rapidly and spread all over the country, continuing to play a role in the propaganda of socialist construction. After 1977, the country entered a new historical stage, and Xinhua Bookstore also entered a golden period of development, covering almost all paper media publishing and distribution nationwide.
In 1979, as state-owned enterprises were transformed, Xinhua Bookstore was reorganized and officially entered the commercial operation market. In 1998, Xinhua Bookstore registered its trademark and became a more independent state-owned commercial publishing organization. Xinhua Bookstore has more than 20,000 outlets in major cities across the country and can be seen in many countries around the world.
As an official state-owned enterprise, Xinhua Bookstore bears the heavy responsibility of the communication and development of national cultural and educational undertakings. In any case, the state will not let Xinhua Bookstore encounter any form of business crisis, and the people will not let Xinhua Bookstore Go bankrupt or eliminated. Because for a country and a nation, it is too important and indispensable in terms of cultural continuation and educational development.
State-owned enterprises also need to make profits and cannot be in a state of loss for a long time. In the context of the market economy, if a company cannot achieve profitability, then there is no need for it to exist. There must be something wrong somewhere.
It can be seen from the above statistics that Xinhua Bookstore has always been profitable. A business that loses money must be done by no one. Is traditional book publishing profitable? Publishers are well aware of this problem. Publishing houses can make money by relying on bookstores, so bookstores will definitely make money.
Compared with other private bookstores, Xinhua Bookstore has a unique advantage. It almost monopolizes the publication and sales of textbooks and teaching supplements nationwide. In 2018, there were 9.75 million college entrance examination candidates across the country. In other words, from the first grade of primary school to the ninth grade of high school, there were nearly 10 million students in each grade, adding up to 90 million students. Earning 1 yuan from each student can also generate a gross profit of 90 million yuan every year.
The business scope of Xinhua Bookstore is not only textbooks and teaching aids, but also the publication and sales of many categories of books, as well as cultural equipment. On World Book Day in 2018, Xinhua Bookstore’s online store began operations. Although it was a step slower, the diversification of sales methods also ushered in new opportunities for Xinhua Bookstore.