Chinese publishers adapt to rising popularity of e-book

Over the last seven years, the Shanghai-based 99 Online Bookstore has developed into south China's largest online book retailer. However, the store's owners are not satisfied with stopping there. The Shanghai 99 Readers' Culture Co., Ltd., the owner of the store, plans to sell an e-reader application through Apple's App Store by the end of this year in an effort to capitalize on the increasing popularity of tablet computers and mobile devices. Mobile device users who download the application will be able to browse the company's library and purchase copyrighted e-books for just 60 percent of the cost of buying a printed version, according to Yuang Yuhai, the company's president. "The Internet is an infinite bookshelf," Huang said. He is already known for his ability to adapt to China's changing publishing industry in the Internet era. "I can't disclose the number of e-books that will be available for download this year. But I can tell you that we have copyrights for more than 1,500 books," said Huang, whose clients include "The Da Vinci Code" author Dan Brown and Nobel laureate Mario Vargas Llosa. Apple's iPad mobile device triggered a buying frenzy in China after debuting last April, with massive crowds of die-hard Apple fans lining up to purchase the tablet computer. The International Data Corporation, a market analyst, has estimated that China will purchase more than 2.5 million tablet computers in 2011, quadrupling the number bought in 2010. According to a survey on reading habits conducted by the Chinese Academy of Press and Publications last year, 3.9 percent of the survey's 19,418 respondents said they read books via mobile devices, three times the number reported in a similar survey conducted in 2009. Traditional publishing houses are scrambling to find solutions to what could become a dangerous trend for printed media. These companies have taken to using microblogs as a marketing tool in order to increase the visibility of their products. The People's Literature Publishing House, China's largest and most influential publishing company, has about 350,000 followers on Weibo, a popular Chinese microblogging site. The 60-year-old publishing house uses its Weibo account to post the latest information about its products, as well as communicate with readers. "This year, a large number of publishers and authors opened microblog accounts. Unfinished book cover designs were posted online in order to solicit public opinions," Huang said. The change indicates that publishing has become a more dynamic and interactive industry, rather than merely focusing on the one-way transfer of information, according to Huang. In addition to creating new business opportunities, emerging technologies have also prompted some to forecast the eventual demise of the print publishing industry. "Print publishing is inevitably decaying. The industry won't die outright, but will eventually become the sole domain of only a few small companies," said Zhang Shuangwu, editor-in-chief of Blog Weekly magazine, a popular semimonthly publication dedicated to Internet-centric news and articles. "To be optimistic, our print magazine may only survive for another five to 10 years," Zhang said.