Who Knew There Was a Market for Ebooks in China?
This is all news to me:
Pearson PLC’s book publishing division Penguin said Tuesday it has signed a deal to make a number of its English books available in electronic book format to readers in China, as the company prepares itself for the rapid rise in the use of electronic book readers like Amazon.com Inc.’s Kindle.
Penguin has signed an agreement with Beijing-based Founder Apabi Group to make over 2,000 book titles available to download.
The Chinese e-book market is primarily focused on libraries and academic collections but there is a small but rapidly growing consumer e-book market, the company said.
The Chinese e-book market in 2008 was estimated to be worth 200 million Chinese Yuan (GBP20.14 million). (CNN)
Things sure have come a long way from the days when I had to go to the Wangfujing Foreign Language Bookstore to buy a copy of Wuthering Heights or Pride and Prejudice. Actually, I find it amazing that I was once so desperate for English language reading material that I would deign to read anything by Jane Austen. Barf. The catalog of ships in the Iliad, or even Matthew 1:2, makes for more scintillating reading.
I am looking forward to seeing some home-grown ebook readers on the market here in China over the next five years once the tech has been ironed out.
Stan, when was the last time you found yourself on Beijing public transportation? If you look around you, 1 out 3 people under 50 are reading a book through their mobile, PSP, or some other device.
Sure, people like reading books on their mobile devices. That’s a far cry from there being a healthy market for ebooks (i.e. people will pay for this stuff). Let’s face it, the vast majority of reading material you see has been downloaded from the Net.
For example, I like downloading Podcasts onto my iPhone. Would I pay for those if they started charging $2 a pop? No way.
BTW, I am a frequent user of public transport. Was on both the bus and the subway yesterday.
Er, Stan, how can you NOT know about Qidian? They have millions of volumes and god-knows how many authors and tens of millions of readers. Look, there is a DOZEN AUTHORS on that site who make ~1Million RMB a year.
I am also an author there; just not popular enough to be paid yet. XD
I just wish that sort of thing was available a decade ago. Makes life much more interesting.