Bertelsmann CEO: Traditional Media Still Has A Good Future.

"The speed of China's development is amazing. Not only the infrastructure and the economy are developing very fast, but also the management level has been greatly improved.

Technology makes greater demands on content value.

Publishing and selling books in China always face the challenge of book logistics.

But now there are many new e-readers, such as iPad, SonyReader, Kindle and so on, which have brought new opportunities for the development of China's book industry.

I think a very important point is that whether traditional books or e-books, its content is valuable, and the value is reflected in the price.

The current situation is that compared with many other countries in the world, the price of books in China is still very low.

Therefore, if we want to develop the book industry in the direction of marketization, we must let consumers fully understand the value of book content. I believe this will be a long process.

In my submission

On the other hand, traditional media must keep abreast of the development of new media.

The development of e-readers and new equipment means that the way of making and pmitting media content has changed a lot.

The new technology not only provides readers with more channels to get content, but also makes the content making process more economical and efficient, which means that the publishing cost can be greatly reduced.

Therefore, the main task of the media companies is to make up for the shortage of traditional media through the development of new media. I have no doubt that cooperation with new equipment providers will help to better disseminate outstanding content.

Landon's e-book sales are not up to 50%, which I am not sure.

But we can say for sure that this is an opportunity. We must seize the opportunity of digitalization.

E-books provide people with faster, more convenient and more opportunities to buy books.

But I want to emphasize once again that content is the most important thing, whether in traditional books or electronic books.

The biggest challenge we need to deal with is whether we can provide good attractive content, find good writers, and create good stories.

If I can grasp this point, I have no doubt that our media industry will have a very bright future.

We have a very open attitude towards the development and R & D of reading equipment. If China develops its own "iPad", we will be very happy to provide it with content.

In addition, our digital technology is not limited to book publishing business. Bertelsmann also invested a lot of resources and power in the development of digital technology in magazines, television and services.

Diversification should be a natural consequence.

As early as the end of 2009, I said that the media performance in the financial crisis was much better than most other industries.

But no one seemed to believe my judgment at that time. Last year, the development of Bertelsmann group verified my judgement.

More than just us, many other media companies perform better in the financial crisis than other industries.

Because no matter what the economic situation is, people need entertainment, information, learning and self-improvement, and the media can meet people's needs.

Therefore, the media industry not only developed well before the financial crisis, but also played a very stable role in the financial crisis.

If we can introduce good content through suitable carriers, such as mobile new media and new electronic devices, we will introduce better prospects to the media industry.

Compared with other media companies, Bertelsmann group's business is very diversified.

We have book publishing, magazines, music copyright, service outsourcing, TV business. Apart from the diversity of business, we are a very international company.

Television is our biggest business department.

Our group is very proud of having this television business department.

RTL group will not catch cold. It is very healthy.

The financial crisis has proved that television is a very stable business form. During the crisis, the performance of our TV Department has hardly declined.

RTL not only gets income from TV advertising, but also has great strength in program production. We are using this part of our capabilities and brand resources to develop network TV.

In the past, television was the dominant media, and in the long run, it would still be the leading media.

Music business has changed a lot over the past ten years.

In the past, the industry mainly relied on the sale of records and the sale of CD. Now, the music industry is doing more business by performing performances, concerts and selling copyright.

The record making industry is no longer growing but shrinking, so we decided to sell that share in 2008.

But we still have the trademark of BMG (Bertelsmann Music Group) and have created BMG music copyright business. We will bring the new business into the new era of music industry.

For an enterprise, it not only needs an excellent CEO, but also a good team.

The combination of entrepreneurial spirit and innovative ability of the Bertelsmann group has created our creative workforce and kept us developing.

Bertelsmann is not a listed company, but a family business with long-term development vision.

This family is very supportive of a media company like us in terms of content and business innovation, and in the long-term development plan of the whole group.

The Bertelsmann family and the board of directors and management of the group are always at a distance, giving the board and management a full freedom.

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China is an interesting country.

Bertelsmann has entered China since 1991, and has been in the history of nearly 20 years.

You are right. We really started our business in China with books.

Over the past more than 10 years, we have also developed Ou Wei te service. Through magazine advertising and magazine publishing consulting service, we have entered the field of periodicals.

In fact, the book club has not only withdrawn from the Chinese market, but also sold or ended some other book business in other markets outside China, such as the United States, Britain and Holland.

Recently, the book club of Portugal and Italy has also ended, because the sales mode of book membership is no longer accepted by most consumers, and its membership is less and less.

But at the end of the book club business, we expanded the scale of our service business in China.

At the same time, we are actively considering how to start the book business in China and introduce excellent content to China.

I believe that the development of electronic publishing and e-books has brought a very good development prospect to the book industry. We are considering how to cooperate with the Chinese publishing community in this respect and bring more good contents to Chinese readers.

Of course, Bertelsmann also has other products and brands that want to develop in China.

At present, Bertelsmann's business in China mainly covers three aspects, one is magazine, two is service outsourcing, and the three is Bertelsmann Asia Investment Fund.

We regard China as one of the biggest growth markets. We have high hopes for the development of these business sectors.

At present, we have more than 2000 employees in China. All our business in China is not only healthy and profitable, but more importantly, it has the potential of sustainable development.

We hope to increase the proportion of income in China.

In the field of business, we are developing new customers. We are also exploring new opportunities to make new investment projects. We need to take many different measures to develop business and expand our scale.

In early 2008, we established the Bertelsmann Asia Investment Fund.

We hope to invest in some enterprises with high growth potential and long-term development potential in China, such as education, new technologies and services.

At the beginning of its establishment, many people held reservations about investment.

China is a very interesting country. It is a very suitable place for the development of new technologies. In many areas, the development of new technologies in China is very fast.

I hope that through the investment of Bertelsmann Asia Investment Fund in related fields in China, we will grasp the opportunities to develop in these fields.

One of our investment projects, BitAuto, has recently been successfully listed on the New York stock exchange.

I am very satisfied with the operation of this fund. I am very proud of this local team.

Our investment rate has been quite fast. In the past two years, we have invested four enterprises and two funds.

In the future, we hope to continue to maintain this investment speed, that is to say, invest 3 projects a year.

Investing in China, we focus on long-term development without time pressure.