The ups and downs of domestic smart card magazines

Release time:2018-04-10 09:54:35

Since Card Technology, which plays a crucial role in the international smart card industry, announced its discontinuation last year, a thought has been lingering in my mind, which is to make a simple summary of the development history of several domestic magazines related to smart cards. Although some magazines have deviated from the field of smart cards, others are still sticking to it. Therefore, it is still too early to summarize now, but there is always a way to organize them. Due to work reasons, I have had some contact and cooperation with these smart card magazines, so I try to respect objective facts to record the major developments during this period. From this, it can be seen that the development and changes experienced by the smart card magazines themselves reflect the development process of smart cards in China.
When it comes to domestic smart card magazines, there are four more professional ones, namely \"Gold Card Project\" (now renamed \"Smart Card and Electronic Label\") by Yakosi Information, \"Card Technology and Security\" by Yate, \"Card Market\" by Fangka Information Center, and \"Gold Card Project\" by Guangzhou Science and Technology Commission.
In addition, there are other magazines that also cover certain smart card content, but they cannot be considered professional smart card magazines, such as \"China Credit Card\", \"RFID Business Situation\", \"Financial Electronics\", and so on.
To talk about these four professional smart card magazines, we need to start with \"Gold Card Project\" by Yakosi Information.
Because it is the first professional media in China that focuses on smart cards, it can be said that it has gone through more than a decade of ups and downs together with the development of China's smart card industry.

Yakoshi's \"Gold Card Project\" first appeared in 1996 at the Beijing Exhibition Center; 96 Gold Series Engineering Technology Product Exhibition and Trade Fair; It can be said that the exhibition was the first professional exhibition involving smart cards. Since then, there have been one or several smart card exhibitions every year, but both in terms of scale and the quality of exhibitors and visitors, they have been declining year by year, filled with old and old people who collect data bags and sell waste.
At this exhibition, the \"Gold Card Project\" by Yakoshi was distributed in the form of leaflets at each booth and also to the audience. Denny, who later organized two other smart card magazines, was responsible for the Beijing business of Yakoshi's \"Gold Card Project\".
Shortly thereafter, Denny left Yakoshi to take charge of another magazine called \"Electronics and Gold Series Engineering\". Yakosi's \"Gold Card Project\" has Xiao Li and Xiao Huang in charge in Beijing. During this period, Yakoshi had close cooperation with the National Gold Card Office, to the extent that Yakoshi hosted the annual IC card seminar advocated by the Gold Card Office every year. So from this perspective, Yakosi's \"Gold Card Project\" can be said to witness the process of China's smart card starting, developing, maturing, and growing from scratch. At the same time, Yakoshi also organized many large-scale seminars, forums, and events through this.
Afterwards, Xiao Li and Xiao Huang left one after another, and the Guangdong Provincial Department of Science and Technology also launched a \"Gold Card Project\" claiming to have an official publication number, and engaged in a time-consuming and protracted litigation war with Yakexi over who is the true owner of the \"Gold Card Project\".
At that time, the gold card project was flourishing all over the country, from enterprise business licenses to children's immunization plans, all planned to issue IC cards. For a time, wherever one could think of and needed a license, they wished they could come and issue it. The implicit benefits are self-evident, as a card currently priced at less than 3 yuan could have been sold to users for hundreds of yuan at that time. The value of the \"Gold Card Project\" magazine is also very high, so the conflict between the two companies also reflects the weight of the Gold Card Project cake from a certain perspective at that time.
However, due to the close relationship between Yakushi and the National Gold Card Office, the final outcome was inconclusive. However, after a few years, Yakoshi gave up the name \"Gold Card Project\" and renamed it \"Smart Cards and Electronic Tags\", intending to cover the RFID market that has gradually emerged in recent years. At the same time, due to the proliferation of exhibitions, it is no longer possible to hold a decent national professional seminar.
Moreover, the current smart card market is already very mature, with mature standards for various industry applications. Whether it is users, card merchants, or relevant industry regulatory authorities, smart cards are no longer unfamiliar with them. After more than a decade of development, there have been countless introductions to the technology, market, and application systems of smart cards. At this point, how to organize magazine articles and how to maintain the survival of the magazine has become a problem.
As a result, the magazine \"Smart Cards and Electronic Tags\" copied the entire content of my blog series \"Smart Card Industry Fission\" word for word in the tenth issue last year. I don't know how to say they are good, because my last acquaintance Xiao Meng also left the magazine a few years ago, so I don't want to argue too much with them. However, this reminds me to write more colloquial blog posts in the future, haha.
In 2000, another magazine mainly focused on smart cards was launched in China, which was \"Card Technology and Security\".
As mentioned earlier, Denny, who participated in three smart card magazines before and after, began to devote his main energy and passion to this magazine.
Denny joined the \"Electronics and Gold Series Engineering\" magazine hosted by Tianjin Electronic Instrument after leaving Yakosi, and met Frank from Yate during the exhibition. Frank's main partner is the Electronic Standardization Institute located near the Yonghe Temple in Beijing, which often collaborates with the Institute to host, organize, and participate in various domestic and international forums, seminars, exhibitions, etc.
The profound meaning behind it is that the name AIT of Yate is exactly the same as AIT (Asia Information Technology) of Yakosi, and it is really unclear what other purpose Yate's name had at that time.
Denny and Frank hit it off at the founding of the magazine, and both sides founded \"Card Tech&Security\" in China targeting Card Technology in the United States.
The main focus is on the security, technology, and market aspects of smart cards, and several major columns have been planned to launch the monthly magazine \"Card Technology and Security\".
Of course, there was also a lot of cooperation between the Smart Card Committee of the Information Industry Chamber of Commerce and Frank at that time. And Frank himself also established the China Smart Card Forum, and as the China Smart Card Forum, he often participates in many important exhibitions and standard discussion conferences abroad.
Unfortunately, after a brief collaboration of about six months between Denny and Frank, Denny left again to prepare for the opening of his third smart card magazine (which will be discussed later in the next article). And Frank gradually turned his attention to emerging technology fields such as RFID and NFC. Through cooperation with the China RFID Industry Alliance, he regularly holds exhibitions on electronic tags and smart cards, as well as payment terminal equipment, and also organizes related NFC seminars, Global Platform seminars, etc. every year.
At present, the magazine \"Card Technology and Security\" is still ongoing, and it frequently participates in events such as the annual Carts Show in Paris, France, Card Tech Show in the United States, smart card related exhibitions in Japan and Singapore, and summit forums.
In addition, as Yate has also hosted several international golf exhibitions, it has established a“ Seagull” The golf club provides everyone with a regular gathering and communication opportunity, which can be considered as Frank's integration in his own business.
Compared to Yakoshi's \"Smart Cards and Electronic Tags\" (formerly known as \"Gold Card Project\"), the current publication of \"Card Technology and Security\" is still impressive. In fact, Yakosi has already devoted its main energy to building a global smart card procurement platform and exploring the so-called B2B and B2C markets, so it has basically given up more investment in magazines. However, it is difficult to comment on the prospects.

The \"Card Market\" magazine is the result of Denny's decision to start his own business after a long period of ideological struggle after leaving Yate. Denny established Beijing Fangka Information, and \"Card Market\" is a print media platform below.

At that time, Denny found a partner who was the Smart Card Professional Committee. The Smart Card Professional Committee and its superior Information Industry Chamber of Commerce were all derived from the Ministry of Information Industry. The former Director General of the Ministry of Information Industry also served as the President of the Information Industry Chamber of Commerce, while the former Chief Engineer of the Huaxu Gold Card under the Ministry of Information Industry also served as the Secretary General of the Smart Card Special Committee. So from this perspective, if you want to do something, you must have partners.

Card Market has been running for seven or eight years since its establishment. Originally, it organized an annual forum on the development trend of China's smart card market, but due to the maturity of the industry, the number of participants in this forum was not very high. The manufacturer's product promotion and certain standard promotion and implementation meetings organized by the organization are also one of the activities frequently co hosted by Beijing Fangka Information. At the same time, some market research reports will be released irregularly.

Of course, the magazine \"Card Market\" itself, like other traditional print media, is also facing pressure from the internet. So Denny also seized the opportunity to launch the China Smart Card Network, as an information platform for domestic smart cards, hoping to leverage the power of the internet to develop and grow.

The \"Gold Card Project\" in Guangzhou was established in the late 1990s when smart cards were in full swing. At that time, it was affiliated with the Guangdong Provincial Department of Science and Technology and legitimately applied for a national serial number. This is rare for other similar media. Because applying for a national official number is almost an impossible task. So most similar industry media use Hong Kong registered serial numbers for market promotion in China.
Due to the official status of Guangzhou's \"Gold Card Project,\" a crackdown was launched on Shenzhen Yakexi's \"Gold Card Project,\" and its use was ordered to cease; Gold Card Project; The name is used to prosecute infringement, seal up, and so on. At that time, it also caused a certain wave in the entire industry. Often, it is the marketing personnel of Guangzhou's \"Gold Card Project\" who have just finished speaking at a company and are preparing to file a lawsuit against Shenzhen Yakexi, which will soon lead to their suspension of publication. Subsequently, personnel from Shenzhen Yakexi's \"Gold Card Project\" came to comfort and said that everything remained the same and there were no problems.
After two or three years of turmoil, there was no conclusion in the end.
In fact, because Shenzhen Yakexi is mainly affiliated with the National Gold Card Office, as an industry supervisor, we do not know what we think about the \"Gold Card Project\" that emerged out of thin air from the Guangzhou Science and Technology Department. However, the result was that the photo was taken by Shenzhen Yakosi Magazine, the seminar was held, and the exhibition was held.
Of course, in the following years, Shenzhen Yakexi renamed the magazine \"Smart Cards and Electronic Tags\". However, at this time, the entire smart card market is also becoming increasingly mature, and media magazines are not as good as before in terms of advertising sponsorship. After all, smart cards are not a daily consumer product for the general public. After the market matures, industry companies and practitioners already have a good understanding of each other, and there is no need to obtain information through watching advertisements. Therefore, the effectiveness of advertisements becomes increasingly limited, and magazines become more difficult to live in.
The Guangzhou version of the \"Gold Card Project\" that was originally intended to destroy Yakoshi's \"Gold Card Project\" was renamed \"Gold Card Project. Economy and Law\" in May 2008, and in fact, it has little connection with smart cards.
In addition, Tianjin's \"Electronic and Gold Series Engineering\" has also been renamed as \"Electronic and Gold Series Engineering Information\", and there is almost no content related to smart cards or gold series in it.

The following are the explanations of two \"Gold Card Project\" magazines, which show the differences in their focus when introducing each other.

This magazine is the only monthly publication in China that has been approved by the state for public distribution both domestically and internationally regarding the Gold Card series project. Since May 2008, the \"Gold Card Project\" has been revised to \"Gold Card Project. Economy and Law\". Monthly, under the supervision of the Guangdong Provincial Department of Science and Technology, hosted by the Guangdong Provincial Center for Foreign Science and Technology Exchange, and co organized by Wuhan Wuyou Management Consulting Co., Ltd., is a comprehensive academic journal that covers all aspects of economics and law and is publicly distributed both domestically and internationally. Main issue, domestic unified issue number: CN44-1541\/T, international standard issue number: ISSN1671-2498.

The monthly magazine \"Smart Cards and Electronic Tags\" (formerly known as \"Gold Card Project\") is sponsored by the National Gold Card Project Office and was founded in 1995. It is the most influential and earliest professional publication in the Chinese industry to cooperate with the national gold card construction, and is currently the only bilingual Chinese journal distributed globally. The magazine actively participates in promoting the necessary plans, standards, and management regulations formulated by the National Gold Card Group, the State Council, and relevant industry regulatory departments. Persist“ Spread card technology, cultivate card market, serve card users, and promote card applications; The editorial policy. Highly favored by readers for its authority, professionalism, directness, and ability to convey new, fast, and accurate information. And it has been recognized and supported by many well-known domestic and foreign manufacturers. It is the largest circulation, fastest information transmission, and most authoritative professional journal in the industry.