“I hope that in the coming year, the number of books on the platform can grow exponentially,” said Shi Saifei, Deputy General Manager of Sales Operations at Tencent's advertising division, in her opening remarks at the third Tencent Advertising Education and Book Ecosystem Conference. This vision is set against a backdrop of widespread anxiety and intense polarization experienced by the entire book publishing industry in 2025. The overall market size continues to decline, while a historic shift has occurred in channel structure: content e-commerce saw a 30.43% year-on-year increase in sales volume, capturing 40.53% of the total market share and surpassing platform e-commerce for the first time to become the largest retail sub-channel. Meanwhile, traditional shelf-based e-commerce and physical channels remain under pressure, with sales volume declining by 16.50%. This "polar opposites" landscape has thrust publishing houses into a vortex of contradiction: abandoning content e-commerce means voluntarily giving up growth, yet diving in headfirst often means confronting fierce traffic competition and profit pressures. Against this backdrop, the convening of the third Tencent Advertising Education and Book Ecosystem Conference carries significance far beyond a typical industry gathering, as publishers widely hope to find an answer to a core question: as traffic红利 gradually dissipates, what will ultimately drive the next wave of growth for the book industry?
The evolution from "selling books well" to "selling good books" is clearly underway. While the engine of growth for the book industry has already shifted, the mindset and operational capabilities of most publishing institutions have not kept pace. Tencent Advertising's proposed framework of "selling books well, books that sell well, and selling good books" presents a systematic solution aimed squarely at this contradiction. For publishers, this represents not merely an optimization of marketing and distribution techniques, but a strategic transformation from "traffic competition" to "value management." The key to "selling books well" lies in choosing the right battlefield and establishing a differentiated advantage. In an environment of relentlessly rising customer acquisition costs, Tencent's ecosystem, with its dual foundation of "social + content," offers unique value for the publishing industry. As observed by Zhao Dayong, a key opinion leader in the traditional culture niche on Tencent's Video Channel, premium hardcover and higher-priced books often perform exceptionally well on the platform. In his live streams, products like "The Red Book," which carry a relatively high price point, consistently sell hundreds of copies almost instantly upon listing. "Users aren't just purchasing knowledge; they are buying an emotional connection," Zhao stated. This consumption logic, rooted in emotional bonds and content affinity, stands in stark contrast to other price-driven book e-commerce platforms, providing more fertile ground for high-quality publications.
This perspective was corroborated by several industry practitioners from different angles during interviews. For instance, Li Shuanglei, Deputy Director of the Marketing and Sales Center at China Machine Press, highlighted that the core advantage of the Tencent ecosystem lies in its high-value private domain soil. The press manages over a hundred professional communities for university teachers and has accumulated nearly a million精准 readers through Official Accounts and Enterprise WeChat. The vast pool of private domain users沉淀ed on WeChat provides publishers not only with sales but, more importantly, with a sustainable dialogue capability built on trust. "Within the private domain ecosystem, we see not only high user repurchase rates but also significantly higher average order values compared to other content platform e-commerce channels. For example, our management and professional books priced above 100 yuan perform particularly well on the Video Channel. Currently, the repurchase rate for China Machine Press's WeChat Store exceeds 40%," Li explained. "This isn't achieved through promotions; it's the natural outcome of relationship cultivation." The realization of "books that sell well" is greatly aided by the empowerment of intelligent tools. Official data shows that the book category within Tencent Advertising grew over 65% year-on-year, with spending by publisher merchants surging by 121%. Behind this remarkable growth is the fact that tools like Store Ads and Smart Bidding have significantly lowered the operational barrier to entry. Store Ads, which incur no cost without a conversion, drastically reduce the trial-and-error cost for publishers. For example, a well-known children's book brand achieved monthly sales exceeding 5 million yuan through Store Ads, with a stable ROI above 1.5. Furthermore, the Smart Bidding tool supports simultaneous short video and live stream campaigns and features AI-powered auto-optimization, already enabling many publishers to achieve the efficiency of "one person doing the work of ten"; the system's auto-optimization功能 has even rendered dedicated ad operators unnecessary for some merchants.
"Selling good books" is the fundamental aspiration of publishers and the ultimate goal of the continuous upgrade of Tencent Advertising's book ecosystem. Tencent Advertising is consistently increasing its investment in nurturing and supporting the book content ecosystem. In 2026, the platform will dedicate more resources to incubating high-quality book content creators, steering the industry back towards value-based competition. Initiatives include collaborating with renowned experts and key opinion leaders within the ecosystem, such as those from Tencent News, through formats like training camps and creation camps to continuously supply the industry with high-caliber content creators, fostering a virtuous cycle of "driving book sales with quality content." This aligns perfectly with the current trend of reader demand shifting from "purchasing a commodity" to "acquiring effective content," signaling a return to and elevation of the publishing industry's core value. At this conference, Tencent Advertising also officially launched the "Good Books, New Voices Video Channel Excellence Management Creation Camp" specifically for the publishing industry. This camp employs an application-based admission process and aims to provide publishers with comprehensive, in-depth empowerment across the entire chain—from closed-loop operational strategies for WeChat Stores and the Video Channel, hands-on coaching, resource对接, to special incentives—assisting publishers in upgrading from mere "selling" to "long-term management" within the WeChat ecosystem. The initiative plans to cultivate a batch of benchmark transformation cases for the publishing industry within a year. This series of investments by Tencent Advertising is gradually推动 publishers within its ecosystem to upgrade their operations from "traffic acquisition" to "user management."
Collaborative Breakthrough: Building a New "Capability-Complementary" Ecosystem In a stock market environment,孤军奋战 by any single part of the publishing chain struggles to cope with complex market challenges. Publishers possess quality content but often lack channel insights; influencers have traffic but frequently miss stable supply chains; service providers understand ad投放 but may not have the right products. This capability mismatch leads to inefficiencies across the upstream and downstream, constraining industry development. It necessitates that all players in the industrial chain break down these "capability silos" and build a new,协同共生的 ecosystem. To this end, Tencent Advertising launched the "Book Transaction Growth Middle Platform" mini-program, designed to construct an efficient industrial collaboration network. On this platform, publishers can one-click list distributable product catalogs,带货 agencies can easily find matching supply chains, and the platform team provides customized matching services. The practical experience of Zhu Yingzhou, E-commerce Deputy General Manager of Jinglian Group, confirms the value of such a collaborative platform. "Through in-depth analysis of influencer data, we can quickly match them with the most marketable books. This precise matching capability is our core competitive advantage," he stated. Jinglian Group has further extended its service chain by signing IPs and building its own live-streaming bases to offer publishers full-chain empowerment from product selection and content creation to ad投放.
The value of collaboration is also evident in the collective ability to respond to market shifts. Tencent Advertising's insights reveal that reader consumption demand is undergoing a profound transition from "cost-performance ratio" to "heart-performance ratio," where emotional value and content resonance become core factors in purchase decisions. The 2025 bestseller "Making It" precisely tapped into the comeback anxiety prevalent among职场人群. Through a multi-dimensional content offensive involving storytelling via short videos, influencer interpretations, and AI-generated materials, the book rapidly gained popularity on the Video Channel, becoming a representative bestseller in the social sciences category for 2025 and validating the new sales logic of "emotional resonance + content drive." Technological empowerment further enhances collaborative efficiency. Faced with the "recommendation ranking" mechanisms widely used on content e-commerce platforms, the Tencent ecosystem, through AIGC tools like "Digital Humans," has significantly lowered the production threshold for high-quality creative content. Publishers simply need to obtain IP authorization to generate digital human voice-over videos via AI, eliminating the need for真人拍摄 and reducing costs by over 70%. For instance, one publisher used this tool to generate multiple voice-over materials for an author, distributing them across different platforms; the material production cycle was slashed from weeks to hours while maintaining content style consistency. Xie Wenyi, Head of Books at Xueersi Online School, shared their practice in this area: "We are upgrading教辅书 into 'intelligent learning systems' integrated with AI technology—using AI for precise question selection, intelligent explanations, and learning companion motivation." This innovative model of "content + technology" not only enhances product value but also provides a template for the fusion of traditional publishing and cutting-edge technology.
Refined Traffic Management: Cultivating Long-Term Growth in Fertile Soil The average order value in the book industry is relatively low within online retail, naturally placing publishers at a disadvantage in bidding scenarios. In response, Tencent Advertising proposes two breakthrough paths for publishers: increase customer lifetime value, or enhance content conversion efficiency—both paths point towards refined cultivation rather than extensive,粗放投放. The foundation for精耕细作 is the efficient linkage and trust-based conversion between public and private domain traffic within the Tencent ecosystem. Xie Wenyi pinpointed this accurately in her interview: "After introducing private domain traffic, the platform also匹配s us with some public domain traffic, making the traffic efficiency higher." She further observed that under this mechanism, even for paid advertisements, if the content possesses sufficient knowledge value, users will proactively like and share it, creating social裂变. For example, Xueersi achieved significantly higher conversion rates by inviting editors and teachers to record干货前置 videos that guide users towards book purchases, compared to materials focused solely on direct selling. This content logic of "providing value first, then seeking conversion" is gradually becoming a primary model for book marketing on the Video Channel.
Regarding提升转化效率, Tencent Advertising provides publishers with a clear traffic map. Currently, WeChat ad consumption is concentrated in core scenarios like the Video Channel and Moments; vertical video has become the mainstream format for high-conversion creatives. Based on this, publishers can adopt a phased strategy: focus short-term on high-potential placements like the Video Channel and Moments, plan medium-term for the deeper user ecosystems of Official Accounts and Mini-Programs, and long-term, leverage Tencent Advertising's omni-channel platform to expand into broader growth spaces. The essence of this layered strategy is that it guides publishers away from blindly chasing hot traffic trends and towards rhythmically building a traffic matrix according to their own development stage. This strategic thinking reflects a maturation in the operational philosophy of the publishing industry—a shift from pursuing short-term hits to building sustainable user assets and brand value. As the market transitions from incremental competition to存量博弈, what the publishing industry needs is not merely another traffic gateway, but a survival and development methodology adapted to the new market cycle. What Tencent Advertising offers is precisely such a systematic solution: leveraging cutting-edge tools to lower operational barriers, utilizing collaborative platforms to break down capability silos, and implementing refined strategies to cultivate user assets, ultimately guiding publishers to collectively construct a sustainable growth model centered on content value.
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