China: book market up 4.72%; e-commerce, short-video platforms drive growth
The value of the book market in China increased by 4.72% in 2023, with sales revenue at list price of 91.2 billion yuan (A$19.3 billion), according to Beijing OpenBook, reports Publishing Perspectives.
The Chinese book market has turned around compared to the value decline of 12% in the previous year. OpenBook pointed to factors including late-pandemic Covid-19 effects, where last year marked China’s resurgence after years of struggle during the health crisis. The volume of sales for 2023 period showed a 1.55% increase in active titles from a volume of 2.37 million titles, as gauged by ISBNs in the overall retail market. The number of new release titles in the Chinese market was above 180,000, representing an increase of 7.3% new titles compared to 2022.
Book sales are being influenced by short-video platforms such as Douyin, a counterpart to TikTok. E-commerce platforms are the leading driver of market growth, with short-video channels coming in second and physical stores third. Many influencers in China are keeping authors in the public eye, an example being Nobel laureate Mo Yan and his friend Yu Hua last September.
The largest category in the Chinese market is children’s books with a share of around 27.21%, but the category had the largest decline for 2023. There were 13 categories and subcategories showing positive growth in 2023: content related to physical health, medicine, and life—frequently driven by readers’ increased attention to traditional Chinese medical practices following the pandemic; books about knowledge and skill-improvement, including self-help, economics, and management; books related to ‘hot topics’ as well as to film and television, and live broadcast recommendations; and study aids for students for curricular material as well as recreational reads.
Titles singled out in the Publishing Perspectives report include Chi Zijian’s The Last Quarter of the Moon (People’s Literature Publishing House), which has been propelled by streaming video, and Shi Tiesheng’s I and the Temple of Earth (People’s Literature Publishing House).
Category: International news
