The rise of e-reading: Digital reading habits in China

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Dedicated to promoting digital reading and bridging the gap between paper and online publishing, this year's Digital Reading Conference released numbers on the most read digital works, as well as the top 10 cities with the highest number of online readers.

The Digital Reading Conference China 2018, themed "New Era, New Reading, New Expectations", was held Friday in Hangzhou, the capital of east China’s Zhejiang Province.

People reading digitally are willing to read more

According to a white paper released at the conference, the digital reading market in China reached 15.2 billion yuan in 2017. The number of digital readers in China has also increased significantly in the last three years, reaching 378 million in 2017.

A white paper on 2017 China digital reading is issued at the fourth China Digital Reading Conference in Hangzhou, capital of east China's Zhejiang Province, April 13, 2018. The Digital Reading Conference China 2018 kicked off in Hangzhou on Friday. /Xinhua Photo

The Paper indicates that the digital readers in China are more dispersed and extends to all ages. The middle-age population accounts for 27.3 percent while the elderly population makes up 1.2 percent.

The average Chinese reads 10 e-books and 7.5 paper books a year. People are also increasingly open to paying for good content, with 63.8 percent of those who use a digital device saying they're willing to pay for quality content.

Urban workplace fiction, teen novels, and military historical fiction are among the most popular genres. The difference has also been seen between female and male readers: female readers prefer teen fiction while male readers prefer military historical fictions.