Double-digit growth continues for China's book market

The overall book retail market in China rose 11.3% year-on-year in 2018, according to a survey conducted by data company Openbook, cited by Chinese book trade publication BookDao.

This represents a small drop from last year's 14.6% growth figure, which leapt up from 12.3% growth in 2016. Openbook estimates the total market from sales data acquired from over 6,000 online and off-line bookstores across China, calculating totals on list price, without taking into account discounting.

Children's books were once again the highest-selling sector in 2018, according to cover price, followed by education, literature, social science, economics, science and technology, lifestyle and art.

According to BookDao, while there were no absolute blockbusters as in previous years (when titles such as Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time racked up oustanding sales), big bestsellers included the original comic series History of China, Principles by Zhang Jiajia, and Haruki Murakami's novel Killing Commendatore.

China's book market now includes print books, content databases, e-books, audiobooks, AR/VR books (often based on TV shows), and enhanced books, BookDao said. Audiobooks are particularly popular, with more than 20% of Chinese citizens listening to audiobooks in 2017, according to data released by Chinese Academy of Press and Publication last year, Adolescents made up 22.7% of listeners, with listening to audiobooks becoming one of the fastest growing ways of reading.

Paid-for information sites specialising in different topics are also growing steadily: in 2018, there were 300 million users of what BookDao describes as "paid knowledge services".

Online retailing continued to maintain a rapid growth, at 24.7%; bricks and mortar shops were down 6.69% year-on-year. Nevertheless, 2018 saw major expansion in bricks and mortar bookstores, both from Xinhua Bookstore Group, the largest state-owned book distributor in China with outlets in cities and towns all over the country, to major chain bookstores and independent bookstores. Many bookstores have received attention from the investment industry, with Yanjiyou closing a 100m yuan (£11.5m) round of financing in December.

2018 also saw several 24-hour unmanned bookstores opening, in Beijing, Hangzhou and other cities. Bxmedia.net, a subsidiary of Beijing Publishing & Distribution Group, built the first 24-hour self-service bookstore in Beijing, Xinhua life+. The store integrates a self-checkout system, remote customer service assistance, a motion recognition anti-theft system, face recognition and other technologies.

2018 saw general book price increases due to rising printing costs. The average price of newly published books rose to 68.5 yuan (£7.85), up 110.5% year-on-year.

Round-ups of the 2018 markets in the US, Australia, France, Germany, Spain, Italy and Norway provided to The Bookseller by international trade magazines in those countries are available here.