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Text/"Tsinghua Financial Review" Bai Haochen

In 2024, commercial banks have not got rid of the quagmire of retail stall.

Recently, the annual reports of most state-owned and joint-stock banks in domestic listed banks have been released. The annual report shows that the growth rate of net profit of state-owned banks and stock banks has generally slowed down, and some institutions have even experienced a significant decline. For example, the net profit of Minsheng Bank has shrunk by 9.85% compared with the previous year, and Ping An Bank has dropped by 4.19%.

Table 1: Net profit of some state-owned and joint-stock banks in 2023 and 2024 (100 million yuan)

Source: Wind, bank annual report

In terms of revenue, according to the business caliber, the classified revenue of the counted commercial banks is very different. Among the state-owned banks, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and Bank of Communications account for a relatively large proportion of public business revenue, while the retail business of agriculture, construction, China and postal services exceeds public business. Among the stock banks, CITIC Bank, Minsheng Bank, Shanghai Pudong Development Bank and Zheshang Bank account for a relatively large proportion of corporate business, while the retail business of China Merchants Bank, Ping An Bank and China Everbright Bank exceeds corporate business.

Figure 1: Revenue of some state-owned and joint-stock banks in 2024 (broken down by retail company, RMB 100 million)

Source: Bank Annual Report

Judging from the change of revenue, the performance of commercial banks in public business revenue is generally better than that in retail business. In terms of retail business, the retail business income of most commercial banks has decreased compared with the previous year, and only a few banks have achieved growth. In particular, the retail business of Ping An Bank, China Everbright Bank and Shanghai Pudong Development Bank declined significantly. The retail business income of Ping An Bank dropped by 25.90% to 71.255 billion yuan, while the decline rate of Shanghai Pudong Development Bank and China Everbright Bank also exceeded 10%.

In terms of public business, more than half of the listed banks achieved growth in 2024, while the banks that did not achieve growth did not experience a sharp decline. The largest increase in corporate business was Ping An Bank. Although the retail business shrank sharply, its corporate business increased by 19.15% in 2024, and its revenue to the public was 63.841 billion yuan during the year. Postal Savings Bank, Zheshang Bank and Shanghai Pudong Development Bank are also growing significantly on the public side.

Figure 2: Changes in the revenue of some state-owned and joint-stock banks in 2024 compared with the previous year (split by retail size)

Looking at the profit again, according to the business caliber, in 2024, the profit performance of corporate business is also significantly better than that of retail business. In terms of retail business, except for workers and peasants China Construction and China Merchants Bank, the retail profits of other banks are very small, and Zheshang Bank even experienced retail losses, with a loss of 2.663 billion yuan during the year. The performance of corporate profits is satisfactory. Except for some large state-owned banks or those banks featuring retail business, corporate business has become the main pillar of bank profits.

Figure 3: Profits/losses of some state-owned and joint-stock banks in 2024 (broken down by retail size, RMB 100 million)

In terms of profit changes, in 2024, the profit points of most banks have obviously shifted-the profit of corporate business has increased rapidly, while the profit of retail business has dropped sharply. In terms of retail business, the retail profits of listed banks generally declined compared with the previous year, among which Everbright Bank and Ping An Bank declined significantly, and Everbright Bank decreased by 95.83% to 281 million yuan. Ping An Bank dropped by 94.81% to 356 million yuan. On the public side, most banks’ profits have improved, and there are not a few that have greatly improved. In 2024, the profit of the Agricultural Bank of China to the public increased the most, with an increase of 68.92% to 244.892 billion yuan during the year. China Construction Bank, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Bank of China and China Merchants Bank also increased by over 20%.

Figure 4: Changes in profits of some state-owned and joint-stock banks in 2024 (split by retail size)

In terms of characteristics, both revenue and profit show the trend of corporate expansion and retail contraction, or it can be explained as the strategic turn of bank operation. The reason is mainly the cyclical rotation of bank retail and corporate business-in the past, retail business performed strongly and was under pressure on corporate business, but now it is in the opposite form.

In the early years, China’s banking industry was dominated by corporate banking. After 2010, the background of interest rate marketization superimposed residents’ wealth accumulation and consumption upgrading, prompting commercial banks to shift their strategic focus from corporate to retail. With the optimization of the top-level design of retail business, such as the pilot expansion of consumer finance companies, the relaxation of credit card installment business supervision, and the gradual improvement of personal credit information system, in 2016, joint-stock banks led by China Merchants Bank and Ping An Bank took the lead in the wave of the development of retail business characteristics, subverting the traditional business logic centered on corporate business and upgrading retail business to another growth pole of commercial banks besides corporate business.

Based on a huge customer base, retail business can provide considerable business volume, and because of the high basic interest rate of retail loans, it can also alleviate the pressure of bank interest margin, which is one of the best tracks for commercial banks to enhance their profitability and improve their operating level. Under the background of "expanding domestic demand and promoting consumption", the value of retail business is rising, and its importance is becoming more and more prominent. Commercial banks have also carried out retail business transformation in order to adapt to macro-development, alleviate the current operating difficulties, occupy a favorable position and seize the first opportunity in industry competition.

However, in recent years, the retail business of banks has gradually entered a bottleneck period. Since 2023, commercial banks have been in a state of collective stall at the retail end for two consecutive years. According to incomplete statistics, the retail revenue of most large and medium-sized banks that have published results has been hit, and the retail business revenue has generally shown a negative growth trend. There are two main reasons for the huge decline in retail business of commercial banks:

On the one hand, the downward cycle of real estate continues to curb residents’ willingness to consume. After decades of prosperity, China’s real estate market suffered periodic pains, and the growth rate of national real estate development investment declined for three consecutive years. The downward trend of the housing market had a direct impact on residents’ asset value and income expectations. First, the shrinking asset value directly affects residents’ willingness to consume. In order to cope with potential economic risks, more residents tilt their financial focus from consumption to savings, which inhibits mainstream personal credit businesses such as credit cards and consumer loans. Second, the continuous decline in housing prices will continue to hit the confidence of mortgage buyers and raise the risk of default, which will lead to a surge in non-performing rates.

On the other hand, credit cards, consumer loans and other products face high homogeneous stock competition. After years of market development practice, China’s urban credit card and consumer loan markets are gradually saturated. At present, the retail product matrix of each bank is highly homogeneous, and it mainly relies on the preferential strength and location advantages of commercial banks for stock competition. In addition, with the rise of internet finance, online consumer credit products, with their convenience and flexibility, further aggravate the operating pressure of credit card and consumer loan business. According to the Blue Book of China Bank Card Industry Development 2024, the total amount of credit card transactions in 2023 was 39.8 trillion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 5.6%, and the transaction amount declined for two consecutive years. The average decline of credit card transactions in state-owned/joint-stock banks has reached 23.44%. With the stall of the main retail businesses such as credit cards and consumer loans, the growth momentum of bank retail has fallen into a bottleneck.

Under the long-term influence of multiple factors, the non-performing rate at the retail end of banks has risen and the incremental space has been continuously compressed. Under the realistic background that weakness is difficult to solve in a short time, commercial banks need to resort to other businesses to ensure high-quality and stable operation.

The performance of the public business is bright, and the bank’s break is dawning.

In the context of the collective stall of retail business of commercial banks in 2024, the resilience shown to public business may become the way to break the bank’s operation. For a long time, corporate banking has been an indispensable part of bank credit business, although in recent years some banks have shifted their focus to retail business. However, the foundation of public business is still there. In the context of the current lack of growth momentum of retail business, it is relatively wise for commercial banks to shift their business focus to corporate business, which is embodied in the following points:

First, it has strong anti-cyclical ability for public business. Compared with the retail business, which is highly influenced by the fluctuation of economic cycle, the public business has stronger anti-cyclical ability relying on policy support and industrial chain coordination. The stability of corporate customers’ cash flow is higher than that of retail customers, which plays a role in smoothing the fluctuation of asset quality in the overall operation of banks.

Second, the corporate business has more abundant business scenarios. Corporate business has the nature of "credit+",while corporate business has the nature of "credit+",which can promote the coordinated development of intermediary business, thus generating the multiplier effect of comprehensive income. By providing services to corporate customers, banks can simultaneously explore retail business opportunities such as payroll and employee wealth management, and realize the value transfer chain from enterprises to individuals to enterprises.

Third, the development of corporate business is in line with the current policy orientation. Under the current macroeconomic policy environment, the state emphasizes that finance supports the real economy and promotes industrial upgrading and structural adjustment. As one of the core channels of banking service entities, corporate business is highly compatible with policy guidance such as serving the real economy and supporting national strategic industries, which not only helps banks optimize their credit structure, but also effectively connects with national policies and helps the rapid development of national strategic industries. By developing corporate business, banks can deeply understand the needs of enterprises and provide customized financial services, thus promoting industrial upgrading and high-quality economic development. At the same time, the development of public business can also promote the development of related industrial chains, form a virtuous circle and inject new impetus into economic growth.

Two-wheel drive for public retail, and banking is not biased.

Ji Guangheng, president of Ping An Bank, said at the performance meeting that no strong bank was biased in the end. Without development loans, there will be no mortgage. Without a new account, there will be no waiting list. We still have a process of balanced development. In fact, corporate and retail businesses are not binary opposites, but more like two sides of banking business. Corporate businesses can naturally penetrate the upstream and downstream small and medium-sized micro-customers and employees’ personal financial service needs by serving the core enterprises in the industrial chain; The consumer behavior data accumulated by retail business can feed back the bank’s accurate judgment on the operating conditions of corporate customers.

Looking forward to the future, commercial banks must adhere to "walking on two legs" in order to achieve high-quality development. We should not only deepen the basic advantages of retail business, but also grasp the strategic opportunities of public business. This two-wheel drive business model is not only a pragmatic choice to meet the current challenges, but also a long-term plan for the future.

This article is a columnist of Weiyang. com: Tsinghua Financial Review is published. The content is the author’s personal opinion, not the website’s. It is forbidden to reprint it without permission, and offenders will be prosecuted!

Original zhaobaoquan communication

In the second decade of 21st century, the decline of China’s paper media has lasted for seven years, and the decline of the world’s paper media has lasted for ten years. Every year, a large number of newspapers in China are closed down or changed into electronic editions, and a large number of newspapers are stubbornly making breakthroughs in transformation and carrying out reform iterations. Where is the direction of newspaper transformation? The author believes that the paper media should carefully analyze the media ecology it faces and find the direction of transformation and development in order to achieve a breakthrough in transformation.

First, the origin of the theory of newspaper extinction

2009 is a watershed in the development of global newspaper industry.

Since 2009, European and American newspapers have fallen sharply, and hundreds of newspapers or magazines in the United States have been forced to close or turn into electronic editions. Christian Science Monitor, a century-old newspaper founded in 1908, announced the closure of the paper edition in April 2009; Reader’s Digest, which was founded in 1922 and had a circulation of 17 million copies, filed for bankruptcy protection in August 2009. The 27-year-old French Chinese-language newspaper "European Daily" announced that it would be closed on August 31, 2009.

In fact, the topic of "the death of newspapers" originated in the 1990s. In 1994, American futurist Michael Crichton called newspapers "media dinosaurs". Howard Kurtz, a media critic in Washington Post, called the newspaper industry a "smell of death".

In the 21st century, the death of daily newspapers even has a clear forecast time. In 2005, Philip Meyer, a professor at the School of Journalism at the University of North Carolina in the United States, predicted the future of daily newspapers in the book "Disappearing Newspapers: How to Save Newspapers in the Information Age": By 2015, the trend line of readers’ confidence in newspapers will reach zero. If this trend line is extended, the readers of daily newspapers will return to zero by the end of the first quarter of 2043. This is the origin of the widely quoted prediction that one day in 2043, the last daily reader will check out and leave.

In 2008, Professor Philip Meyer published the article "Elite Newspapers of the Future" in the American News Review, which revised the previous prediction and proposed that "the number of daily newspaper readers will decline more sharply" and "the last reader who reads newspapers every day will disappear earlier than October 2043."

Just as the newspapers and periodicals in Europe and the United States issued a death cry, the newspapers in China were doing their last carnival in a climax, and the journalists in China didn’t feel or felt or didn’t want to believe that the cold winter was coming.

The newspaper industry in China began to decline in 2012, and the advertisements of urban newspapers began to decline in half every year in 2013. In 2014, the biggest news in the newspaper industry was that Shanghai Evening News was closed for business reasons. In 2016, two landmark urban newspapers, Oriental Morning Post in Shanghai and Jinghua Times in Beijing, closed.

In the past five or six years, the tide of newspaper closure has been going on, and at the end of the year and the beginning of the year, news of newspaper closure will come. Around New Year’s Day in 2019, about 20 newspapers in the country stopped publishing. In 2020, there are still a number of newspapers that have announced their closure, namely Wuhan Morning Post, City Express (Tianjin), Tianfu Morning Post, Zigong Evening News, Benxi Evening News, Qidu Morning News (Wenshan, Yunnan), Life Daily (Shandong), Ji ‘an Evening News (Jiangxi), Lhasa Evening News, etc.

In the last two years, most of the newspapers that stopped publishing were urban newspapers in provincial capitals, and the development trend of newspapers obviously formed a pattern of "one party for one night" in provincial and big cities. Most of the newspapers that stopped publishing in prefecture-level cities were evening newspapers run by local party newspapers, which made second-and third-tier cities form a "one newspaper mode" that only kept daily newspapers. This shows that the reading rate of newspapers has dropped sharply and the living space has shrunk further.

Second, the era of technology "kidnapping" civilization

The survival and development of any species is not a single person fighting, but depends on and creates ecology. When the ecology changes dramatically, species variation will occur, and species that cannot adapt to the new ecology will decline or even die out.

The development of the media industry is also an ecological evolution. The meteorite of the Internet, especially the mobile Internet, hit the traditional media industry, and the ecological change was as fierce as that asteroid hit the earth.

Because, we have encountered an era when technology "kidnapped" civilization.

The paper media is experiencing a "thousand-year-old change".

In history, the publishing and media industry in China has experienced two technological revolutions: the first revolution was from bamboo slips to printing. During the Qing Dynasty of the Northern Song Dynasty (1041-1048), Bi Sheng, a native of Hubei Province, invented movable type printing in Zhejiang. In the era of bamboo slips, it is impossible for cultural products to be copied in large quantities. Even with block printing, it is very difficult to copy a lot of information, especially fragile news information in batches. Movable type printing enables information to be copied in large quantities, which makes culture popular and information spread rapidly.

A direct effect is that a newspaper with modern communication significance appeared in the Song Dynasty-the "Di Bao" which was printed and distributed instead of a manuscript.

The second great change is today, thousands of years later, and the digital revolution has put printing (books, newspapers and periodicals) in an embarrassing situation. Interestingly, the two major changes happened just a thousand years ago, which is exactly what the sentence said: a change that has never happened in a thousand years.

Digitalization has changed human life and also changed human reading habits. Paper is no longer the main media form in the future, and various screens are evolving into the main media communication form.

No era has seen the survival and development of culture as it is today, and the influence of technology is so great that technology has played a decisive role in the development of culture and civilization. For example, the mobile Internet has completely changed the way culture spreads, which is an era when technology "kidnaps" civilization.

Third, the acceleration of information media iteration

The Internet impacts the paper media first, because the limitation of newspapers is inherent.

Newspapers, called Newspapers in English, are "newsprint". As the name implies, they are papers that publish and disseminate news. The most important thing in news is timeliness. The timeliness of newspapers is 24 hours, that of weekly magazines is 7 days, and that of monthly magazines is one month.

In the era of information shortage, human beings get news information mainly by reading newspapers, because newspapers have a large news load, and radio and television are limited by time periods, and the news load is small. Under normal circumstances, TV news can’t do as well as newspapers. Due to the limitation of TV broadcast time and duration, news events are difficult to explain clearly, but the timeliness of TV is dominant-it can be broadcast on the same day or even live. For many years, newspapers and radio and television have a strong and weak complementary relationship in news information, which has lasted for decades.

The emergence and popularization of the Internet broke this balance in one fell swoop.

First, the timeliness of information dissemination on the Internet is in seconds, which can be released at any time, modified at any time, followed up at any time and updated at any time. This is a war that cannot be won for a newspaper with a 24-hour cycle.

Second, compared with TV, the network has capacity advantages in addition to timeliness advantages. Cyberspace is infinite in theory, and the time for TV to broadcast news is limited.

Third, from a geographical point of view, network communication has no geographical restrictions and can quickly spread news throughout the country or even around the world. In the first decade of the 21st century, there appeared a situation in which newspapers asked the Internet to forward their manuscripts, even taking the number of manuscripts forwarded by the Internet as the evaluation standard. It was called the era of "newspapers vying for favor with the Internet", which was really a "happy suicide phenomenon".

Fourth, the instant interactive participation of online news is a powerful means that newspapers and radio and television can’t match. The satisfaction of network arouses the sense of participation and expression of human beings. It is inevitable that the newspaper’s boss attitude of "whether it is up to me or not" will be abandoned under the form of network equality.

From the perspective of prescription, compared with the Internet, newspapers are basically "old news". Gong Shuguang, the founder of xiaoxiang morning herald, put forward the "old news theory" of newspapers shortly after the newspaper was founded. He believes that compared with the internet, the information made by newspapers is not news, but old news. Because when the newspaper came out, the news was out of date, and even because of the qualitative change of news events, the newspaper report became "fake news" Because it has been a long time since the newspaper reached the readers through interview, editing, peer review, edition assembly, signature, publication, printing and delivery, the news may have undergone fundamental changes. This form of old news has become a major defect of newspapers in the network age, and it is also a major defect that newspapers themselves cannot solve.

The decline in newspaper advertisements since 2012 and the cliff-like decline since 2013 are not accidental, let alone coincidental. Because 2012 is a year of rapid development of mobile Internet, the main channel of online news dissemination has migrated from computer PC to mobile phone. Two landmark events are: in January 2011, Tencent launched WeChat; In August 2012, today’s headlines went online, and the social war and information war on the mobile side had a new overlord.

A cruel fact is that it is not that newspapers are not good-looking, but that you don’t need to read newspapers to read the news. Mobile phone information dissemination speed, forms of expression (text, video, animation), instant update, editing and reading interaction, whether from news timeliness, reading pleasure or interactive participation, the Internet has completely surpassed the paper media, and the mission of paper media as news information dissemination has come to an end.

Fourth, the inherent fatal weakness of urban newspapers

The great changes in the mode of communication almost killed the paper media, and the first one to decline was the urban newspaper, because the urban newspaper had an inherent fatal weakness, which was the defect of its business model. The prosperity of the day after tomorrow temporarily covered up this defect, and the Internet led to the differentiation between the information reading market and the advertising market, making this defect irreparable. This is what Mr. Xi Wenju, the "father of China Metropolis Daily", did not think of when he founded the mode of Metropolis Daily.

On January 1st, 1995, Xi Wenju, a newspaper legend affectionately called "Father Xi", founded Huaxi Dushi Bao, the first metropolis newspaper in China. Xi Wenju summed up a set of theories and methods for establishing a new type of city newspaper, comprehensively and systematically established the operating concept of newspaper marketization and a brand-new competitive strategy, which made Huaxi Dushi Bao rise rapidly and opened the "Metropolis Times" of China newspaper industry. Xi Wenju was known as the "Father of China Metropolis Daily".

The inherent defects of the business model of metropolis daily founded by "Xi Laoye" are: issuing at a reverse price and selling twice.

According to the general commodity law, the cost of a commodity is one yuan, and it must be sold for at least one yuan. This is called shun price, and the sales price is higher than the cost price. This is common sense.

But urban newspapers are not. Urban newspapers are sold at a very low price. How low is it? The printing cost of newspapers in 1 yuan or even those in 5 yuan costs 50 cents, which is still the retail price and the wholesale price is 20 cents. If you sell a copy at the lowest cost of 1 yuan money, you will lose 80 cents. If you issue 500,000 copies and have more pages, you will lose 400,000 a day in printing fees. This is only the printing cost, not including labor costs and office expenses. Printing costs will lose 100 million to 200 million a year.

The business logic of the reverse-price issuance of metropolis daily is: to exchange readers’ reading at a low price, and then to concentrate readers’ reading for the second sale, which is "secondary sale". The first sale is a loss. If the second sale can make up for the money lost in the first sale, this business logic can be played. If the second sale can’t make up for the loss of the first sale, the problem will come immediately.

The prosperous newspaper advertising market covers up the inherent achilles heel of metropolis daily, that is, the problem of profit model. Reverse price issue is a huge worry and has become a double-edged sword. As a new newspaper, in order to seize the reading market, the low price and "knocking on the door" invented by Xi Wenju made the metropolis newspaper seize the reading market quickly, and low price became a magic weapon. Nanjing, Jiangsu Province is a place where newspaper competition is relatively concentrated. Modern Express, Yangzi Evening News, Nanjing Morning News and Jinling Evening News are all doing well, and the price war is the bloodiest, and even newspapers with a retail price of 10 cents appear. In Changsha, Hunan Province, there was also a big discount for similar financial products that were returned three times in the first year of publication and in the third year. It is said that someone ordered 5,000 copies and made a big windfall.

Murphy’s Law, known as one of the three major discoveries of western culture in the 21st century, points out that the more you worry about, the more likely it is to happen. By 2013, what Metropolis Daily was most worried about happened. The first sale was still at a loss, but the second sale was in a cliff-like decline. Many newspapers fell by half, so newspapers fell into a vicious circle of "issuing at a reverse price and selling twice".

On the other hand, the "golden decade" of Metropolis Daily is a decade of great development of China’s real estate and automobiles. With the state’s regulation of real estate, overheated real estate began to cool down, and automobiles began to saturate. Newspaper advertisements declined for the first time since 2011. Although the amount of advertisements in metropolis daily is large, its structure is unreasonable, mainly relying on real estate and cars, which has also become one of the reasons for the structural collapse of advertisements.

Fifth, the misunderstanding of the Internet run by paper media

Of course, the paper media practitioners have seen the advantages of network communication. The paper media represented by the newspaper industry began to "integrate newspapers and networks" very early. There is no newspaper that has not run a news website, and there is no newspaper that does not shout "transformation to the Internet".

Around 2008, the tide of newspaper transformation came to the fore. The biggest transformation is Metropolitan Express, a subsidiary of Hangzhou Daily. The 19th Floor, an online community they founded, established Hangzhou Nineteenth Floor Network Co., Ltd. as early as 2006, which became an important part of the new media strategy of Hangzhou Daily Newspaper Group and Metropolitan Express. The company takes "where there is a city, there is an active 19th floor" as its entrepreneurial vision, and its main business has developed rapidly since its establishment. In addition to Hangzhou, the 19th Floor has successfully copied the 19th Floor in nearly 30 cities, including Taizhou, Jiaxing, Ningbo, Suzhou, Chongqing, Fuzhou, Jinhua and Shaoxing, through strategic cooperation, mergers and acquisitions, and created an urban network community with local attributes.

More newspapers use the means of running newspapers to make websites. The method is very simple, that is, running a news website and then moving the news content of newspapers online. There are many and miscellaneous contents, and there is no effective promotion means. Most of them have become things that newspapers talk to themselves and entertain themselves. The report is huge and the actual influence is greatly reduced.

After the rise of the mobile Internet, some newspapers have developed APP news clients at a very fast speed. Because there is no promotion method and the content and form do not meet the requirements of Internet communication, many newspapers have become "online versions", and most of them have become "dead souls" who are very lively and seemingly beautiful.

In the transition to new media, newspapers all over the country spend a lot of money, but few can really form influence and authority.

Sixth, the era of mass communication has changed rapidly

While the internet subverts the means of communication, the crowd, that is, the "audience" mentioned by the media, has also quietly changed, from the public to the focus, from the group to the circle.

The vigorous development of urban newspapers enriches information; With the rapid development of Internet, information has quickly entered the era of surplus from the era of shortage.

The huge amount of information on the Internet not only makes information enter the era of surplus from the era of shortage, but also quickly makes information transition from the era of mass to the era of focus. People are divided into different circles because of their different preferences. People are divided into different circles because of personal values, hobbies, personal experiences and other reasons. The crowd is rapidly subdivided, and the media enters the era of focus. Correspondingly, the mass economy also quickly enters the era of social economy.

Popular newspapers and periodicals are declining rapidly, and their readers are divided in an all-round way. Because of their inaccurate positioning, popular newspapers and periodicals can’t find their own people in the era of focus, and they don’t know who to read them to, which leads to the obvious decline of two kinds of media. One kind is urban newspapers. After golden decade, which is relatively short of information, when it enters the era of information surplus, it soon can’t find its own readers and becomes a big and unreasonable category. The other kind is abstract newspapers and periodicals, which are mostly geared to the public. Because of the diversification of communication means and the fragmentation of human reading time (mobile media era), people don’t need to choose for themselves, so they can read selectively on their mobile phones. This is the root cause of the decline of abstract newspapers.

Seven, the two directions of paper media transformation

Faced with the impact of the Internet tide, the paper media have sought to break through the transformation, forming two transformation directions: First, transforming themselves into a news production and communication organization, sticking to the news and no longer sticking to the paper media, and the transformation of Oriental Morning Post into "The Paper" is a successful case; The second is the transformation from operating media to operating users. Happy Old Man is a successful case.

At the end of 2016, the biggest news in the newspaper industry was that the last issue of Oriental Morning Post was fixed on December 31, and the mission of Oriental Morning Post ended, and the era of "The Paper" surged.

Oriental Morning Post was founded in 2003. Since 2013, it has been planning to transform into new media. From the beginning, it was a comprehensive transformation and a thorough transformation. Until 2017, when the paper newspaper was abandoned and the internet media was completely transformed, The Paper inherited and adhered to the original, in-depth and ideological reports at the core of Oriental Morning Post. Compared with the general internet media, it inherited the original and in-depth reports of the paper media and the rigorous style of manuscript expression, such as in-depth investigation, large-scale planning and revealing reports, making it a news production and dissemination organization with unique temperament. On the other hand, The Paper focuses on improving the originality of content, comprehensively improving the technical level, and combining technology and content to form new media products: AR, VR, full-motion video, H5 and other products that integrate various elements of news. The Paper is leading in China.

All-round transformation, inheriting the tradition of paper media news production, forming characteristic news products, and fully integrating into technology, has made The Paper a successful case of paper media transforming into Internet media.

In the ten years when the global paper media went down, there were also those that went up against the trend, one of which was Happy Old Man. Happy Old Man was founded in 2009 when the paper media in Europe and America declined, and in 2013 when the paper media in China declined, its circulation exceeded one million.

Happy Old Man puts forward a grand mission: "To provide solutions for the aging society in China". Put forward the road map of "from spiritual enclosure to industrial integration", and a newspaper will comprehensively enter the elderly industry.

After ten years’ hard work, Happy Old Man has become an old-age industrial phalanx with newspapers, magazines, websites, WeChat matrix, publishing, travel agencies, e-commerce companies and universities for the elderly, and has become an example of paper media’s industrial transformation in the Internet age.

The concept of the transformation of Happy Old People is: from operating media to operating people.

The transformation dilemma of most newspapers lies in that readers are not clearly positioned and don’t know who is reading the newspaper. Happy Old People has conducted in-depth research on the crowd and found a new trend of the elderly population in China: the "new old people" group has been formed.

Happy Old Man first put forward the concept of "new old man": the baby boomers after the founding of New China are growing into "new old people" completely different from the traditional old people. "New old people" refers to the largest baby boomer generation born in China from 1950 to 1970, which was the most typical in the 1960s. They have enjoyed the fruits of reform and opening up, with high income, large savings and good consumption concept. They have become a new consumer, and the cultural needs of the "new elderly" are just needed. Under the general trend of shrinking demand of the traditional elderly circle, the "new elderly" group has quietly grown into an obvious "small trend". Nowadays, the old-age industry is in the ascendant. Under the pain point of social old-age care, "cultural old-age care" has become a trend with great energy.

Under the general trend of the decline of paper media, there are two "small trends" of the media: the diversification of content and the accuracy of communication. For China, a populous country, "small is big", and any division will form a "public".

"Happy Old Man" does not do news as "old news" or focus on the public, but firmly grasps the focus that has a strong dependence on paper media-the elderly group, making "Happy Old Man" a newspaper that the elderly like, serving the people behind the newspaper, and taking the lead in stepping out of the "old road" of taking the media as a single product. This also found a way out for paper media: from operating media to operating people.

Along with this demand, apart from running newspapers, Happy Old People’s Newspaper also launched a series of cultural products: Fengwang WeChat Matrix specially serving "new old people", Kangyi Lived Over 100 years old magazine specially showing the elegance of elderly students, Happy Life Publishing House specially publishing books for the elderly, Mimetime International Travel Agency specially serving the elderly, Jiangsu Happy Old People’s E-commerce Company specially customizing products for the elderly, and launched the offline campus of Happy Old People’s University in 2017.

The transformation from operating media to operating people has made Happy Old People newspaper a single media product, and then become a service field for people, which has opened an infinitely broad space for media development.

The author believes that the above two successful cases represent the direction of the transformation and development of paper media in the era of integration. (The author is the president of Hunan Newspaper Association, the chairman of Hunan Happy Old People Industry Management Co., Ltd. and the president of Happy Old People Newspaper.)

Original title: "On two directions of newspaper transformation and breakthrough"

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　　What is the taste of canned cactus? What about poultry meat and convenient ready-to-eat grains fed with vegetable feed? Three days later, these global selected foods and agricultural products will gather in Shanghai.

　　Food is the most important thing for the people. With the development of economy, the demand of domestic consumers has changed from "eating well" to "eating healthily".

　　The booths of food and agricultural products in this Import Expo are extremely popular, and it is one of the exhibition areas with the largest number of exhibitors from countries and regions. Some enterprises have even made an appointment to apply for the booths in the second Import Expo.

　　Alafoz, a well-known Danish organic dairy manufacturer, plans to launch a variety of organic dairy products in China at the Import Expo. "In Denmark, up to 50% of infant food is organic." Fred Jolson, head of global milk powder division of Alafoz, said that the proportion of organic baby food in China market is not high, but the growth rate is gratifying.

　　New Zealand is an important import source of high-quality milk, honey and other foods in China. According to the New Zealand Trade Development Council, about 90 New Zealand enterprises will "group" to appear at the Import Expo to display high-quality food and agricultural products such as avocado, kiwifruit and honey.

　　"Now is the beginning of the New Zealand avocado planting season. The China market is still relatively unfamiliar with avocados produced in New Zealand. I hope that delicious New Zealand avocados can enter the China market." Pandiwen, Commercial Consul of New Zealand Trade Development Council, said.

　　Chen Lu, Shanghai regional chairman of the Mexican Chamber of Commerce in China, said that Mexico’s agricultural products have excellent growth environment and excellent quality, but there are not many foods on the table of China residents. "I hope to promote food and agricultural products such as tortillas, raspberries, coffee, beer and special Chili sauce through the import Expo to meet the demand of China market for consumption upgrading." Chen Lu said.

　　Dozens of Mexican enterprises will also bring many foods and agricultural products that are still "new things" in the domestic market, such as canned cactus, avocado puree and avocado oil.

　　As a world-famous "grain merchant", Cargill decided to participate in the exhibition very early, and will display its Canadian 3A-class grain-fed steak, as well as chocolate, edible oil and a series of natural and healthy high-quality imported products and raw materials.

　　Brazilian multinational food processing giant JBS said that during its stay in China International Import Expo(CIIE), it will introduce the leading brand of Brazilian beef market "Friboi" to China consumers, and display its series of fresh products, including poultry meat related products fed with vegetable feed that will be introduced to the market in 2019.

　　According to Fengyi International, the parent company of Arowana, many products of all industries of the Group will be displayed at the Import Expo, including local brand products produced with high-quality imported raw materials, a wide range of original imported products and bulk agricultural products.

　　For global food and agricultural products enterprises, the growth of total consumption in China market and the improvement of food quality mean huge business opportunities, and it is also likely to bring great changes to the global food and agricultural products industry. The data shows that in 2017, the amount of food imported by China was close to 60 billion US dollars, and the import value of the entire agricultural product market exceeded 120 billion US dollars. The upgraded consumption of "eating goods" is still driving this figure to grow at a double-digit rate.

　　As a heavyweight buyer, Dai Wei, vice president of Carrefour China District, said that the Import Expo brought together enterprises from all over the world, and it was able to purchase without leaving Shanghai, saving time and energy, and being more high-quality and efficient.

　　"We will seize the opportunity of opening wider to the outside world and further expand investment and trade cooperation in China. We will also continue to take advantage of the global layout to transport high-quality products to China to meet the people’s demand for imported food." Guo Kongfeng, Chairman and CEO of Wilmar International, has a firm belief in the China market, which is also the aspiration of many exhibitors.

　　According to Liu Jun, president of Cargill China, the Import Expo not only provides opportunities for enterprises to display high-quality products, but also creates a platform for enterprises to connect with the government, customers and consumers.

Notice of the State Council Customs Tariff Commission on Adjustment Scheme of Provisional Import Tax Rate in 2020
Tax Commission [2019] No.50

General Administration of Customs:

In order to optimize the trade structure and promote high-quality economic development, according to the relevant provisions of the Regulations on Import and Export Tariffs of People’s Republic of China (PRC), the import tariffs of some commodities have been adjusted since January 1, 2020. Now, the Adjustment Plan for Provisional Import Tax Rates in 2020 is printed and sent to your department. For details, please refer to the annex.

Attachment: Adjustment plan for provisional import tax rate in 2020.

The State Council Customs Tariff Commission
December 18, 2019

attachment

Adjustment schemes such as provisional import tax rate in 2020.

I. Adjusting the import tariff rate

(1) Most-favored-nation tax rate.

1. Since January 1, 2020, a provisional import tax rate will be imposed on 859 commodities (excluding commodities with tariff quotas); Since July 1, 2020, the provisional tax rates for seven items of information technology products will be cancelled (see Schedule 1).

2. The fifth step of reducing the MFN tariff rate of information technology products listed in the schedule of the Amendment to the Tariff Schedule of People’s Republic of China (PRC)’s Accession to the World Trade Organization will be implemented from July 1, 2020 (see Schedule 2).

(2) Tariff quota rate.

We will continue to implement tariff quota management for eight categories of commodities such as wheat, and the tax rate will remain unchanged. Among them, the quota tax rate of urea, compound fertilizer and ammonium hydrogen phosphate will continue to be 1%. Sliding duties will continue to be applied to a certain amount of cotton imported beyond the quota (see Table 3).

(3) The agreed tax rate and preferential tax rate.

1. According to the trade agreements or preferential tariff arrangements signed between China and relevant countries or regions, in addition to the agreed tax rates previously approved by the State Council, since January 1, 2020, the agreed tax rates of bilateral trade agreements between China and New Zealand, Peru, Costa Rica, Switzerland, Iceland, Singapore, Australia, South Korea, Chile, Georgia and Pakistan and the Asia-Pacific trade agreements have been further reduced. From July 1, 2020, according to the provisions of the bilateral trade agreement between China and Switzerland and the Asia-Pacific trade agreement, the relevant agreement tax rate will be further reduced (see Schedule 5).

When the MFN tax rate is lower than or equal to the agreed tax rate, if there are provisions in the agreement, the provisions of the relevant agreement shall prevail; If there are no provisions in the agreement, the two shall apply from the lower level.

2. Except Equatorial Guinea, preferential tax rates will continue to be applied to other least developed countries that have established diplomatic relations with China and completed the exchange of letters. Since January 1, 2020, Equatorial Guinea has ceased to enjoy zero-tariff preferential treatment.

Second, the export tariff rate

From January 1, 2020, export duties will continue to be levied on 107 commodities such as ferrochromium, and the export tax rate or provisional export tax rate will apply, and the scope and tax rate of the commodities to be levied will remain unchanged (see Table 4).

Third, the implementation time

Unless otherwise specified, the above scheme will be implemented as of January 1, 2020.

Schedule: 1. Provisional tax rate table for imported goods

　 　 　 2. Table of MFN tariff rates for some information technology products

　 　 　 3 tariff quota commodity tax items and tax rates table

　 　 　 4. Export commodity tax rate table

　 　 　 5. Table of agreed tariff rates of imported commodities for further tax reduction

Attachment download:

Schedule 1. Provisional tariff table for imported goods

Schedule 2. Table of Most Favoured Nation Tax Rates for Some Information Technology Products

Schedule 3. Tariff quota commodity tax items and tax rates table

Schedule 4. Export Commodity Tax Rate Table

Schedule 5. Table of Agreed Tariff Rates of Imported Commodities for Further Tax Reduction