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A billboard advertising wap.cmread.com, the website of China Mobile. Itprovides a variety of content for its mobile phone subscribers. WuChanging / For China Daily
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Publishers urged to break down novels into smaller segments to capitalize on new trend
BEIJING - Although millions of Chinese people have abandoned traditional books for mobilephone novels as smartphones becomes more popular, paying for what you read is merely anoption for most readers.
Su Chenhui has been a big fan of online novels since his college days but has never paid forany of the hundreds of books in his eight-gigabyte mobile phone memory card.
"There is not really much difference between a pirated version and a legal copy except for alittle delay if you want to get it free," said the 26-year old IT major graduate, adding that piratednovels can be easily reached via links provided by some search engines.
"It's pointless paying for what you can get free. Besides, most of the books are just potboilers. Iwould still pay for valuable content such as research reports, but in most situations when Ineed them I can always get access via an account that has been paid by my university or mycompany."
According to data from the China Internet Network Information Center, the number of mobileInternet users exceeded 303 million by the end of 2010, 30 percent up on the previous year.
The Yearbook of Digital Publishing in China (2010-2011), released by the Chinese Academy ofPress and Publication, showed that the total revenue of the digital publishing industry hasgrown from 21.3 billion yuan ($3.3 billion) in 2006 to 105 billion yuan in 2011.
Hao Zhensheng, the academy's director, said the emergence of micro blogs and tabletcomputers has created unexpected new opportunities for the industry.
However, despite all the optimism, a report by the market research company AnalysysInternational shows that only 21 percent of users surveyed are willing to pay for a newspaperon their mobile phones, although more than half said it's what they read most frequently.
Despite the findings, newspapers are the most likelyto make a profit among mobile phone readers.Other popular content such as novels, magazinesand cartoons all have less than one fifth of readerswho are potential payers.
More than a quarter of the people said they are notwilling to pay to read anything at all on mobilephones, and that group is still growing, AnalysysInternational's report said.
The report attributes the main reason for a shrinkingwillingness to pay to the easy access to readablecontent using smartphones, which lowers thethreshold for getting free information throughInternet access.
"Lack of quality content is also a reason for the poor financial performance of the mobilereading market," the report said, citing the fact that and only 8 percent of the readers saythey'll pay for literature.
"Publishers are still cautious in terms of putting their quality articles into mobile circulationbecause of the intellectual property problem. The problem of piracy remains very muchunsolved," the report said.
Traditional literature, serious and sophisticated as it is, is not really suitable for reading onmobile devices in short bursts. People would rather just buy books directly, it said.
With classical works fading away, social and lifestyle information are quickly taking up thescreens.
According to the report, choosing traditional literature for "frequent reading" has dropped from56 percent to less than 40 percent. Meanwhile, the percentage for social networks and blogshas doubled.
Sun Peilin, analyst and compiler of the report, said shortness in length and high interaction arethe two reasons why social networking sites have overtaken literature as the first choice forreaders.
"Mostly, when people read on their mobile phones, it's either at bedtime, waiting in line, or onpublic transport. In other words, in fragmented time," Sun said.
"Publishers should consider breaking down the novel structure into smaller chapters toaccommodate the new reading habits of mobile users."
The survey also listed the most popular literary websites in China, among which China Mobile'swap.cmread.com topped the list. Nearly 30 percent of those surveyed said they have visitedthe site.
The most popular book on wap.cmread.com has been clicked on 900 million times, and themost profitable novel has already made 12 million yuan.
"Mobile reading combined with the operator's binding service and vast client base are the keyfactors to the fast growth of the business," Sun said, adding that many of the reading servicesare paid monthly and are free of flow rate fees.
Online novels have not yet contributed to publishers' profits, but there is still the opportunity forthem to do so, said Liu Fang, chief executive officer of a digital publisher under the ChinaWriters Association.
"Some readers buy the physical book after they've read the digital version," Liu said. "Somobile reading does not really damage businesses but increases the size of a readershipgroup instead."
Having realized digital publishing is already an inevitability, many traditional publishers havebeen establishing a digital division over the past year, Liu said.
"When publishers unleash more of their quality content next year, mobile reading will see areal boom," he said.
China Daily
(China Daily 11/01/2011 page14)
