According to the 2017 News and Publishing Industry Report, released by The Administration of Press and Publication of the People's Republic of China, the number of the new publications in China declined by 2.8 percent last year, with a total number of 255,000 titles. The reprint titles, however, are on the rise. The total number of the reprint titles rose by 8.4 percent to 257,000. The print run of books and newspapers hit a new record with a 2.3 percent increase to 9.24 billion copies. Both the revenue and profit of the publishing industry are steadily increasing. The total revenue of the industry grew by 5.7 percent to 87.96 billion yuan, of which the net profit 12.75 billion yuan, with a 2.4 percent growth.
Taking a closer look at the report, it is not difficult to find that both the number and print run for new titles are in decline, while reprint titles are continuing their increases in these two aspects. This means that in general the publishing industry in China is able to control the cost and improve the efficiency. The titles, total print run and print run per title in humanity and social science categories continue their growth from previous years. Books about science and technology are the fastest growing sector.
The proportion of textbooks in the titles and print run continues to decline while literary fictions and children's books are booming as ever. Among the titles with more than a million copies in print, 7 of them are literary fictions, compared to 5 in 2016, and 3 titles are 'red' communist classics. The total and average copies in print for children's books kept the growth momentum, with 18 titles printing more than a million copies, compared to merely 5 in the previous year. The landscape of journals shifts to category of philosophy, social science and cultural eduction, while the journals of literate and art are on the decline.
If we compare the Top 10 bestselling print book chart compiled by Amazon China with that by OpenBook, we can see that backlist titles such as The Three of Us and The Kite Runner are still on both charts.The boom of the book market is due in large part to the growth of children's books.
Online distribution channels for the book market were also on the rise. The 4 biggest online book retail platforms in China are JD.com, Dangdang, Tmall and Amazon China, accounting for 36.2 percent, 35.1 percent, 17.5 percent and 10.5 percent of the market respectively (data from the report on the third quarter of 2017 by Analysys, a market research company in China). According to the market report published by JD, in 2017 the biggest sectors of the book industry are children's books, educational books, literature, and lifestyle books. The JD.com report also shows that from 2015 to 2017, book purchases have shifted to the mobile devices, and its advantages have become more prominent. In 2016, the number bought through mobile devices exceeded that of computer end in terms of order volume, sales volume, sales amount, and number of users. In 2017, this trend was maintained, and the advantages of using mobile devices continued to increase.
On the other hand, the transformation of brick-and-mortar bookshops has reached its peak in 2017. From major chains and small outlets to independent bookshops, every bookseller in the industry has been shifting away from the traditional retail to the emerging models. The Xinhua Bookstores in many provinces and cities have formed a new distribution system that integrates storefronts with online platforms. The expansion of private bookchains has accelerated and created a large number of well-known bookstore brands. This has also provided a more convenient and direct channel for book retailing and has achieved an increase in book sales.
In terms of digital publishing, 20 key national laboratories on the diverse development of publishing industry launched many digital products. These laboratories consist of academic researchers and digital professionals from publishers and technology companies. Supported by public funds, these laboratories combine the advantages in the fields of studying, research and industry knowledge to give guidance to the development and application of digital publishing products.
In addition to that, national service to the knowledge industry has started on a full scale. Up until the end of 2017, 50 publishing houses have been confirmed as the testing ground for professional digital content recourses and knowledge service industry. Companies such as iget App and Himalaya are the new stars in the knowledge service industry. An increasing number of traditional publishing houses continued their exploration in diverse development and accelerated their transformation towards knowledge service. For example, the digital platforms of 'Science Archive' and 'Chinese Medicine Archive' developed by China Science Publishing Media Company and the 'Zhongdu' pay-for-knowledge product developed by SDX Lifeweek all received tremendous market response.
（translated by Chen Huiyi)