The release of the Mandarin digital issue of the magazine, in its first phase of expansion into China will include international content for Chinese wine consumers to enjoy about wines from the countries where Wine Enthusiast Magazine has journalists and editorial offices. Thousands of wine ratings and reviews based on the 100- point scale that Robert Parker and Wine Spectator follow, are expected to help provide the YesMyWine (YMW) customer a direction for their wine purchasing needs. It also plans educational articles to expand the knowledge of their customer base.
Wine Enthusiast Chairman Adam M. Strum says in a company statement, ‘with tasting offices in Rome, Bordeaux, New York, California and Seattle, we intend to provide the new Chinese wine consumer with these reviews for purchasing direction not previously available to them at this magnitude. We will also be tasting wines from China starting this month in our New York offices. Eventually we hope to reach more than five million wine consumers and key wine trade in China."
Wine Enthusiast monthly magazine claims the magazine's readership of more than 800,000. The magazine and its Buying Guide, with more than 110,000 ratings and reviews, are available online.
YesMyWine was established in June 2008 and is currently the leading Chinese online wine retailer. Over the past three years, the company reportedly has signed up over 4.5 million members. With 6 warehouses in major cities, it has become a symbol for imported wines in Chinese market and the national distribution network channels have helped it become numero uno as the online distributor and retailer for Chinese wine lovers.
Strum sees a bright future for YesMyWine, saying, “I predict YMW in the next five years will become the first multi-billion dollar internet wine company“. Equally enthusiastic is Jared Liu, CEO of YesMyWine who ‘looks forward to exposing our 4.5 million YMW consumers to the ratings and reviews that Wine Enthusiast’s authoritative journalists will provide.’
Fongyee Walker, a Beijing based WSET-accredited educator and an MW aspirant, told delWine in Singapore. ‘China is today the pot of gold for everyone having anything to do with wine.’ She feels it could well be a mirage as the wine market is rather limited despite the hype. ‘Decanter burnt their hands once and decided to stay away from the market even though they have the backing of Time Warner, while discussing another magazine launched last year. In a country that reveres premier wines from Bordeaux, La Revue du Vin de France, the most popular French magazine launched their Chinese language edition last May with a print run of 100,000 copies. ‘Despite the backing of its parent company, the Marie Claire Group, it is still far from making any profits,’ points out Fongyee.
‘The Wine in China magazine, an all-Chinese magazine, the only one approved by general administration of Press and Publication of the People’s Republic of China and founded in 2006 has still not been able to make any profits,’ she says explaining, ‘One of the problems in the non-Chinese magazines is that a lot is lost in translation into Chinese and makes it almost incomprehensible at times. The Chinese reader is put off by such text. The other is the distribution problem on the national scale.’
Wine enthusiast has addressed the distribution problem by bringing out the online edition for the moment. YMW will market it through its national digital network. Besides, the top buyers of YMW will get it complimentary. In the second phase, Wine Enthusiast also will bring out the website on accessories and wine fridges that YMW will link to its website and it will ship directly to YMW’s customers in China to expand their product selection and add to their sales.
Subhash Arora |