The Chinese digital book publishing industry is growing. Audiobooks and ebooks are taking off in a big way. A new report proclaims that the entire digital publishing industry earned an estimated 1.6 trillion yuan ($229 billion) in revenue last year, up 19% from 2022. One of the growth sectors is internet periodicals, e-books and digital newspapers, generating a combined income of 11.3 billion yuan in 2023, an 8.56% year-on-year increase.

In recent years, the role of different book sales channels in China has evolved. Online stores have become the primary book sales channel, dominated by e-commerce platforms such as JD.com, Dangdang, and Tmall. However, the landscape has changed again. Short-video e-commerce platforms like Douyin (owned by ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok) have rapidly grown to form China’s second-largest book sales channel.

Digital publishing offers a wealth of possibilities for vibrant storytelling and engaging readers in new ways, according to Wang Qing, chairman of the Central China Publishing and Media Investment Holding Group. Wang noted that the process of digitization is shaping new content scenarios within the publishing industry. Compared to traditional publishers, digital platforms provide unique advantages in content activation, user reach and fostering a return to reading. “Publishing companies must capture data through their services and let this data empower them to provide even better services,” he added.

Zhou Qing, chairman of Sichuan Xinhua Publishing Group, said that in the era of artificial intelligence, the industry is evolving into a service industry centred around data, algorithms and computing power. With its vast accumulation of content resources over its protracted development, the traditional publishing industry is well-positioned to transform from content resources to digital products by establishing large models.