The encyclopedia · Strategy & Leadership · Strategic decision · 2022
Yanjiyou peaked at 58 bookstores on ¥200M and closed nearly half
China's internet-famous bookstore chain peaked at 58 stores on ¥200M of funding — then closed nearly half and quit Beijing in 2022
言几又 (Yanjiyou) · 2022
What happened
Yanjiyou (言几又) opened in 2014 and became the archetype of the 'internet-famous' Chinese bookstore: photo-ready interiors, coffee and merchandise alongside books. Between 2014 and 2018 it raised nearly ¥200 million across four rounds, and its website listed 58 stores at the peak.
The expansion ran on aesthetics: heavy fit-out, prime rents and marketing drew traffic that was never priced to make money from books. By late 2021 stores were struggling and the chain had withdrawn from Guangzhou, Xiamen, Hangzhou and Xi'an.
In 2022 the collapse went public: staff reported unpaid wages and missing social-insurance contributions; the Shanghai entity faced ¥3.76 million in court enforcement, and courts found no executable assets.
On July 8, 2022 the chain's mini-program listed just six purchasable stores; on July 12 media reported Yanjiyou had fully withdrawn from Beijing. Nearly half of the 58 stores were gone.
Why it happened
- The internet-famous model sold a space, not a business: traffic and photo moments were funded by investors, while books — the margin — were the least important part of the store.
- Expansion outpaced economics: 58 stores on roughly ¥200 million meant every location was a bet that decoration would out-earn rent.
- The social contract broke first: unpaid wages and social insurance, then ¥3.76 million in enforcement — a chain that cannot pay its people cannot hold its stores.
- The traffic migrated: short-video platforms absorbed the browsing and reading time the bookshops were built on, and the crowds never returned.
The lesson
Funding an aesthetic instead of a margin builds a chain that peaks at its 58th store and starts closing at its first: the rent is due whether the photos are pretty or not.
Sources
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