Everyone says that no one reads physical books anymore, but how come "1 RMB Book Live" is still all over the internet?

"The bookstore is being relocated, and no one is reading paper books anymore, so they are being sold cheaply at 1 yuan per book."

With such a headline, many book live streaming rooms have recently landed on users' homepages, becoming a must-visit place for many paper book enthusiasts after meals.

Different from other live streaming rooms, book live streaming rooms are more focused on tranquility. Just by looking from the outside of the live streaming room, many rooms labeled with 1 yuan books can't even see the host's figure. Instead, there are books like "To Live", "Lychee in Chang'an", or other bestsellers.

Quiet and generous, retaining a high-end style while being attracted by the ultra-low price of 1 yuan, in many live streaming rooms with this kind of banner, the number of viewers can range from several hundred to tens of thousands.

For book live streaming and ordinary anchors, this is already rare.

However, after entering these live streaming rooms, it is a different world. Most of the books that truly cost 1 yuan are only one or two, and they are all short masterpieces, health books, etc. Bestsellers still require more than ten yuan or even dozens of yuan, and some classics even cost hundreds of yuan.

But this does not affect the popularity of these 1 yuan book live streams. A large number of users are attracted by the low prices, place orders after making choices, and then make purchases.

This has also become a microcosm of live book broadcasting.

A noteworthy phenomenon is that, especially around World Book Day, major platforms are all holding book activities during this period. In the live broadcasts of various major anchors and publishing houses, there are often tens of thousands of people waiting together for limited edition books, which are often difficult to grab.

According to the "2024 Douyin Reading Ecology Data Report" released by Douyin, in the past year, the cumulative number of reading live broadcasts on Douyin reached 7.3 million, with an average of 3,076 viewers per session.

Perhaps unexpectedly for some, "paper books that no one reads" are still hot commodities in the fragmented electronic age.

The traffic business attracted by "1 yuan books"

Are 1 yuan books attractive?

Yes, but the meat on the fly's leg is too small.

Randomly entering a live broadcast room labeled "No one reads paper books, selling for 1 yuan cheaply," and opening the shopping cart, there are very few books actually priced at 1 yuan. Only by carefully checking the remarks in the live broadcast room or the posted paper labels can you see that most of the 1 yuan books have fixed links.

And these links mostly either contain children's picture books with only a few pages, or short literary works such as "Insect World," "Moon and Sixpence," and "Rickshaw Boy."

In short, they have nothing to do with bestsellers.

However, they do attract real traffic. In these live broadcast rooms, some do adopt a model without an anchor, where users can place orders themselves, while others have users comment with book titles in the chat, and the anchor will individually list the book links. But regardless of the method, the prices are at least 10 yuan or more, far higher than the title of "1 yuan books."

Using a certain Xiaohongshu book anchor as an example.

Like many similar live stream titles, his live stream room is titled "Bookstore Relocation, 1 RMB for 1 Book" and "Last Three Hours, 1 RMB for 1 Book," and he has been live streaming almost every day for the past three months. On his account, the words "1 RMB for 1 Book" are also everywhere, and the cover photos that appear are popular bestsellers such as "Summer, Fireworks, and My Corpse," "Southbound," and "After School."

However, after clicking into his live stream room, it is discovered that the first few links for "Worthiness of the Human World" and "Wang Yangming: The Wisdom of Heart Learning" are priced at 1.98 RMB, indeed achieving a price close to the title, and the sales volume has also reached over 17,000. But when scrolling down to the bestseller section, books like Yu Hua's "To Live" are priced at 16.02 RMB, and "Prosperity" is priced at 20.52 RMB, far exceeding the advertised price of 1 RMB, and the sales volume is only a few hundred to a few thousand.

However, with hundreds of links to over a hundred books in the live stream room, the daily live stream income can also reach tens of thousands of RMB.

Of course, as long as users are careful, they can still find the links for 1 RMB for 1 book in the shopping cart—after scrolling down hundreds of links, the only one is a 9.9 RMB for 10 children's picture books.

Anyway, 1 yuan, it did achieve it.

Also, because of the low price, many users stay in the live broadcast rooms. The platform shows that the peak number of viewers in the live broadcast room reached 9,500, and the average number of viewers reached several tens. The host also gained 120,000 fans.

Similar live broadcast rooms can also be found on Xiaohongshu, Douyin, and Kuaishou.

Some of them directly indicate their connection with "Xinhua Bookstore" or "Foreign Language Bookstore" in their IDs, while others directly refer to the name of Shakespeare and set their IDs as "Xixifufu" or "Xifufu". The backgrounds of the live broadcast rooms are also different. Some are just like mentioned above, broadcasting in a corner of the bookstore, while others directly set the bustling book market as a fake background, and then the host broadcasts in front of a green screen to create a composite image to make it look crowded and the books in high demand.

In the comments section of these low-priced books, many users have expressed that the books are "brand new with plastic wrap" and "thick with clear print, and are genuine."

Being both genuine and inexpensive, these books and their corresponding bookstore ratings have reached an astonishing 4.9 or even higher.

Selling books through live streaming is still a good business

Although "low prices" seem to have become the golden rule for many book live streams, some professionals in the book industry believe that low prices are not the only solution for the industry.

A professional in book distribution mentioned that low-priced book live streams are likely to be directly connected with publishers or the publishers' own small accounts. From the perspective of distribution, such prices not only fail to cover costs but may also result in multiple losses.

"Of course, it's also possible that these books have other 'issues,' but I can't say for sure," he said.

This point was also acknowledged by a publishing house staff member.

She mentioned that although she is not clear about the revenue model of 1 RMB book live streams, the daily storage of books in the warehouse generates considerable expenses. Therefore, she knows that some publishers are indeed cooperating with hosts to sell books with earlier publication dates at low prices to reduce warehouse losses.

However, this may only be the current situation for small and medium-sized publishing houses. For many large publishing houses, book live streaming is still a profitable business.

In the live streaming rooms of publishers such as @Zhonghua Bookstore Flagship Store, @Citic Press, and @Yilin Press, book specials have been launched before and after the World Book Day. Many publishers invite authors to have discussions in the live streaming rooms, and hosts will explain the content of each book, enriching the cultural atmosphere of the live streaming rooms.

According to Tuo Pin's new consumer observation, in the @Zhonghua Bookstore Flagship Store live streaming room, books such as "Famous Comments on the Four Great Classical Novels," "The Complete Works of Zeng Guofan," and "Records of the Grand Historian," which already have multiple non-exclusive versions on the market, can still be sold for over 300 RMB and have a sales volume of over 2000 sets.

Furthermore, these publishers will release exclusive customized editions of books, such as adding patterns on the side, putting effort into the cover and accompanying gifts. These books are usually instantly sold out by paper book enthusiasts and even become favorites in second-hand markets such as Xianyu.

Take the exclusive customized edition of "The Nightingale and the Rose" released by Xixi Bookstore as an example. The limited edition red side edition of "The Nightingale and the Rose" is priced at 78 yuan, but it can be bought for nearly 200 yuan on Xianyu. Similarly, the ocean pattern side edition of "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea" and "Moby Dick" released by Later Wave Publishing were also sold out on live streaming platforms, leaving many paper book enthusiasts to choose to purchase them at a premium on Xianyu.

On the other hand, some popular anchors often include links to books in their product lists to enrich their live broadcasts and personal image.

Here, we are talking about Dong Yuhui and Yuhui's companions.

As we all know, the star product in Dong Yuhui's live broadcast room is not a lipstick from a certain brand, nor is it a certain type of farm rice, but "The Right Bank of the Ergun River".

On the day of Dong Yuhui's last live broadcast in the Dongfang Zhenxuan live studio, "On the Right Bank of the Ergun River" reached its sales peak, with daily sales exceeding 700,000 copies and single book sales exceeding one million. Later, even the author of the book, Chi Zijian, provided Dong Yuhui with a personally signed book as a commemorative prize for the launch of the live broadcast. Dong Yuhui jokingly said, "I've saved retirement money for Teacher Chi Zijian."

In addition, a few days ago, Guo Degang, who made his first product endorsement on Douyin, also selected his new book "Just Said" as the product. According to third-party data platforms, this two-hour live broadcast attracted over 17 million+ viewers, with a peak concurrent viewership of 217,000 people, and estimated sales between 2.5 to 3 million RMB.

Clearly, book live broadcasts are still a demand-driven and undeniable track, and how to extend each node infinitely has also become an issue that major platforms and hosts cannot ignore.