{"id":17346,"date":"2020-11-12T01:20:30","date_gmt":"2020-11-11T17:20:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/?p=17346"},"modified":"2021-06-23T15:26:46","modified_gmt":"2021-06-23T07:26:46","slug":"recycling-used-books","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/2020\/11\/recycling-used-books\/","title":{"rendered":"Recycling Used Books"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

An online second-hand book trading platform revives used books on shelves.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Laurissa Liu in Tianjin<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Holding\nthe belief of \u201cGood books are worth reading twice\u201d, Wei Ying founded a\nsecond-hand book store as an applet in WeChat in May 2017. \u201cThe value of books is generated by reading and sharing,\u201d Wei says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nname of the book store, Duozhuayu, comes from a French word, D<\/em>\u00e9j\u00e0 vu<\/em>, meaning the memory and\nfeeling of familiarity. \u201cSecond-hand items often carry memories of owners that can\nbe shared with our customers,\u201d Wei says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The store adopts algorithm models to operate their business. The number of users reached over two million in early 2019, and continues to grow at a rate of 2,000 to 3,000 a day. Over 11 million books were scanned on the platform. The store has also released an application for mobile phones and opened two physical stores in Beijing in October 2019, and recently in Shanghai in October 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/em>

\n
\n
\n
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    Duozhuayu first offline bookstore located in a cultural industry quarter in Beijing, also as its major office.<\/div><\/div><\/li>\n
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    Refurbished second-hand books are categorized and placed on the shelf for readers.<\/div><\/div><\/li>\n
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    Readers are welcomed to come and read the books without purchasing.<\/div><\/div><\/li>\n
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    Duozhuayu has a strict and high standard for controlling the quality of collected books.<\/div><\/div><\/li>\n
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    The warehouse for collected books gradually expands.<\/div><\/div><\/li>\n
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    Duozhuayu simplifies the trading process and standardizes the refurbishment procedure.<\/div><\/div><\/li>\n <\/ul>\n <\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

    (Photo courtesy of Duozhuayu) <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Wei had\nthe idea of starting up a business back in 2015. She was inspired by BOOKOFF,\nthe biggest second-hand bookstore in Japan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"\"
    The trading platform is simple, well-organized and sufficient.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

    Book owners who want to sell their books can\nscan ISBN code on book covers through the applet so that they can find out the estimated\nprice of their books in the second-hand market, which is about 20 to 30 per\ncent of the market price. Courier then collects these books after an online\nappointment is made.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Collected books are then gathered at\nfactories in Tianjin and Qingdao for checks and sterilization. All books will\nbe wrapped in plastic before they are put on sale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \u201cThe style of a bookstore is not determined by what it sells but what it does not sell,\u201d says Li Chan, Operation Manager of the book store. The applet front page mostly features books about literature, history, philosophy and social science that are recommended by editors and users.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \u201cWe want to be recognized for offering service that features convenience, quality and humanity, not just low pricing,\u201d Li says. The store has an algorithm model that keeps records of books being accepted and rejected. \u201cAs our database grows bigger, the data will be more accurate informing us readers\u2019 preference,\u201d Wei says. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    “We want to be recognized for offering service that features convenience, quality and humanity, not just low pricing.”<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

    \u201cI want\nto build a business model that can stand against the test of time,\u201d Wei adds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    A 73-year-old\nanonymous seller, who\nlives in Beijing, has been selling used books on the platform for two years. \u201cI\u2019m\nnot good at using the internet but the store has helped me to sell my books,\u201d\nhe says in a letter to the bookstore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \u201cI began to lose my eyesight, but my children have no interest in reading. So, I need a channel to sell my books to those who love them,\u201d he says. \u201cConsumers always want to possess books, so they keep buying, but only knowledge and memories can last,\u201d he adds. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Looking for a second-hand book online store which can help you pass on your used books? Search Duozhuayu<\/em> in WeChat applet, download the app of the same name on your phone, or visit their stores in Beijing and Shanghai. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Edited\u00a0by\u00a0Lasley\u00a0Lui,\u00a0Regina\u00a0Chen<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    An online second-hand book trading platform revives used books on shelves.\ufeff<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17351,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1800,11,18],"tags":[1514,248,1512,1511,1513],"class_list":["post-17346","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-special-edition","category-photo-story","category-vchoice","tag-algorithm","tag-book","tag-online-bookstore","tag-second-hand-book","tag-wechat-app"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17346","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17346"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17346\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17913,"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17346\/revisions\/17913"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17351"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}