Traditional calendar days are numbered(2)

A dated industry

The top anti-graft body's ban on government spending on calendars was a blow to the printed calendar industry but isn't wholly to blame for the decline, said Kong, from the Guangdong Printing Association.

He recalled the good-old days of the printed-calendar industry 10 years ago, when designs diversified to include calendars made of silk, canvas and xuan paper, or rice paper, with Chinese ink paintings.

This made calendars high-end gifts.

"But smartphones' proliferation about five years ago hit sales," Kong said.

"People started using their phones' calendars. The ban just accelerated the decline, making a fall a plunge."

He believed the ban created a crisis but should produce a positive long-term effect by forcing sector transformation.

"Printers must evolve from producing only calendars to a wide product range," he said. "They should develop more creative designs and use e-commerce well. And they should follow the printing-industry trends of personalization and DIY."

One of the country's biggest digital-printing chains, Tianyi Digital Printing Co, Ltd, started online DIY-printing services in 2008.

Yofus.com users upload photos, place them in predesigned templates and get customized desk calendars, photo books, postcards, mugs and T-shirts delivered to their doors.

"While the government's traditional-calendar spending ban was an industry blow, it's an opportunity for personalized printing to leap forward," CEO of Tianyi subsidiary Guangzhou Yofus Digital Technology Co Ltd Dong Zuming said.

Dong said his business grew 50 percent annually after the ban.

While more young people use smartphone calendars, there is still strong demand for traditional calendars as gifts and from the elderly.

"Personalized and DIY calendars are special gifts that can pass givers' happiness to receivers and touch their hearts," Dong said.

For instance, elderly parents find it heartwarming to receive a desk calendar from their children in another city printed with grand children's photos, he said.

Xing Tao, a 28-year-old finance professional in Hong Kong, chose to print DIY desk calendars with photos he had taken throughout 2014 as New Year gifts for friends.

The newlywed came up with the idea after making a desk calendar with his wife's photos as a gift for her.

"She loves it so much," the shutterbug recalled.

"It occurred tome such DIY calendars can be great New Year gifts for friends, too. It's not often thought of as a gift. It's affordable. And it matches my hobby."

Xing checks dates with his smartphone. But he finds fun in making calendars that share personal joys with pals.

"It's a year-end capstone of my photography," he said.

"The old saying goes: Good photos stand the test of time. If friends still take interest inmy photos after a year, my shots pass the test."

Higher threshold

Xing is BBS moderator of the documentary photography section of Fengniao.com, one of China's biggest photography Web portals.

The site provides software for its 2 million registered users to download to create DIY photo books and calendars.

It charges Xing 40 yuan per desk calendar.

While Yofus represents traditional printers' personalized-printing e-commerce attempt, Fengniao.com is a website launching personalized printing as a value-added service.

Net Ease, the Chinese Internet company that operates the popular Web portal 163.com, launched Yinxiangpai in 2007 to sell personalized photo-based products, including calendars.

Keyin.cn in April ranked the DIY plat form Yxp.163.com second on its list of printing-industry e-commerce websites and No 1 among personalized-printing specialists.

Keyin.cn is a Chinese printing-industry portal site subordinate to the China Academy of Printing Technology.

Yofus.com ranked fifth on the list and fourth among personalized-printing sites.

Yinxiang pai's success is attributed to 163.com's large user base and its 1997 establishment of a Web portal. Yofus is based on the network of more than 30 digital printing branches across the country under the 22-year-old printing company, Tianyi.

"Personalized printing's e-commerce has a higher entry threshold than the traditional printed calendar industry," said Dong, Yofus' CEO.

"It requires an online shopping mall, user-friendly DIY software, quality printing technology and a network strongly connecting every business link from taking orders to printing to delivery."

He believed it is difficult for wholesale markets' relatively small calendar producers to develop such a comprehensive marketing and production chain.

"But those small printers can join big companies as production centers," Dong said.

"So they can also benefit from personalized printing's boom."