By Nathan Schweizer
Electronic reading is growing at an unprecedented pace, but its growth is raising concerns over the quality of reading content and individual reading habits.
(Ecns.cn)--Reading is simultaneously one of China's oldest and most revered activities. It is here that paper was invented and, in keeping with the country's cultural reverence for education and learning, at times valued such that the very act of throwing away written paper was itself illegal. But with the penetration of electronic reading mediums, China's readers have begun to undergo a palpable, if yet poorly understood, change.
Electronic reading now occupies an unprecedented place among China's readers. Although only 32.8% of China's readers used an electronic reading device during 2010 (according to the eighth annual Comprehensive National Reading Survey), usage is growing rapidly and this number itself represents a 33.3% increase from 2009's figure. The survey also found that of those who had used an electronic reading device, 83.6% would not purchase a paper book after they had read its electronic version, and, more importantly, that while China's readers spent an average of 54.13 minutes a day reading paper books, they also spent roughly 54.80 minutes reading through cell phones or e-readers (including time spent surfing the web), indicating that electronic reading has already come to equal paper reading in average length of time.
Cell phone suspense
Interestingly, paper reading is not the only reading medium that has been displaced by technological changes in China's reading market. Electronic reading itself is also undergoing a transformation, with the percentage of electronic reading done through cell phones occupying 34.8% of China's electronic reading (up from 10.7% in 2009), and PC reading making an equivalent decrease. And, as cell phone reading has come to occupy an ever-greater portion of China's e-reading market, cell phone service providers and e-publishers have seen a tremendous windfall of income growth, with revenues from cell phone reading growing an eye-popping 203% from 2009 to 2010.
And who exactly are these cell phone readers?
According to a survey conducted by IIMedia, a third-party mobile internet researcher, 72.4% of cell phone readers lie within the 15 to 25 age bracket. More than 80% claimed a monthly income of less than 3000 RMB and all told the average cell phone reader spent around 30 minutes a day reading on his or her phone. On average cell phone readers expended roughly 20-30 RMB a year on e-reading, with cell phone newspapers, novels, and pages from news websites making up the majority of their reading material.
Dedicated e-reading devices and tablet computers also represent a growing portion of China's reading market. Although the Comprehensive National Reading Survey found that only 3.9% of Chinese aged 18 to 70 had used an e-reading device (such as the Kindle, Nook, or equivalent Chinese device), this figure is up 2.6 percentage points from 2009's 1.3% figure, representing an annual growth of exactly 200%.
Interestingly, though, while traditional e-ink reading devices have remained relatively strong outside of China, with 2010 sales of Amazon's Kindle reaching 8 million units and a full 40% of iPad owners claiming to own a Kindle as well, they have suffered within China itself as tablet computers (the iPad chief among them) have steadily displaced their less-colorful counterparts. For example, sales for Hanvon, a Chinese manufacturer of e-readers similar to the Nook or Kindle, plummeted 50% in the first quarter of this year, resulting in a loss of roughly 46 million RMB ($7.2 million US) for the company during that quarter alone.
