A rags-to-riches story for former IT engineer

Sui Zixu owns an online business selling birthday newspapers. Provided to China Daily

Yesterday's newspapers become today's birthday gifts

When Sui Zixu, a 23-year-old computer science graduate started collecting old newspapers in 2001, no one expected the IT geek would turn his hobby into a wildly successful career as an online birthday newspaper shop making one million yuan a year.

Sui remembered clearly that in 2001 he watched a piece of news on television, saying He Zhenliang, the honorary president of the Beijing Olympic Committee received an original copy of the UK newspaper The Times published in 1929 as his birthday present.

Sui was attracted by the idea of birthday newspapers immediately. "It is so cool that you can read the most important events nationally and internationally on the day of your birth," he said.

He started to collect old newspapers but he didn't seen them as a business opportunity until July, 2006, when his wife, who is a middle school teacher, decided to open an online store as a pastime when her school closed during summer vocation and they began to sell their newspapers online. "People loved them," Sui said.

Sui said he immediately smelled the potential behind birthday newspapers and he quit his computer engineer job in Zhongguncun without much hesitation.

"At the beginning, I only had 3,000-4,000 copies of old newspapers. Most people visited our shop full of hope but left disappointed because they couldn't find the exact publishing date they were looking for," Sui recalled.

But with almost four years' development, Sui's online store will let hardly anyone down now. His current stock is 1.2 million copies from the 1940s until recently. And he owns 40 different kinds of newspapers, ranging from national newspapers such as People's Daily to local newspapers like Beijing Daily. He now employs ten staff and is the owner of a 200 sq m office.

Though he enjoys being interviewed, he doesn't agree to be interviewed in person or by phone, worrying some of his business tricks may slip from his mouth accidentally, instead he insists on being interviewed via email, so that he can carefully consider every answer.

Sui said the most important factor when running such a shop is a large and stable supply of newspapers, but he is reluctant to reveal where he gets his supply. He said that though he was not the first to open a birthday newspaper shop on Taobao.com, he is definitely the most committed.

He may not be able to reveal all the details of how to build a successful online birthday newspaper store but he still shares some ups and downs in the business with METRO.

METRO: Why were you so confident about making this online store your full-time job?

Sui: When I first opened the shop in 2006, it was a rather new business. So the competition was not that fierce and the potential was huge.

I believe that with the improvement in people's living standards, they will want something special and stylish when it comes to choosing gifts. Plus an online store can serve customers all over the country. Birthday newspapers are perfect for an online store.

METRO: Is it good being a SOHO?

Sui: Not really. Basically, I'm now running the company with 10 employees. It's not completely SOHO because we all work in the same office in order to avoid unnecessary mistakes. I have clear rules to ensure everyone has an 8-hour shift every day.

The job is much more complicated than staring at the screen of a computer and answering questions. A good online sales person can keep a customer with just a few sentences.

I am in charge of management, expanding the market and maintaining enough newspapers.

METRO: Who are your target customers?

Sui: Our customers are mainly those born in the 1980s, because they use the Internet a lot and often go shopping online.

In addition, people between the ages of 20 to 30 are mostly in relationships or eager to build up their career and expand their connections, so they often buy gifts to send to their boyfriends or girlfriends or their friends at work.

METRO: How do you manage to find enough newspapers?

Sui: It was really difficult at the beginning. Mainly it depends on friends and connections. But there was one time that a nearby library decided to move and they wanted to sell all of their newspapers. I found the information online and contacted them immediately. I got two tons of old newspapers from there.

Now I have more connections with more libraries but I cannot reveal any more about this.

METRO: Do you have any memorable stories since you opened your store?

Sui: One time a customer decided our newspaper was "bad" after he received it, because he believed it was impossible for an old newspaper to look so new. He immediately decided we had sent him a fake newspaper.

In fact, we always make sure the newspapers are in good condition before buying them. And when we store them we apply the techniques used in professional libraries so that they won't go moldy.

(Left): People's Daily on the date of the founding of new China. (Right): Piles of old newspapers as birthday present candidates. Provided to China Daily

(China Daily 04/06/2010 page38)