Ma Jie, Director of Information with the People's Publishing House:

Print publishing's dominance is set to wane, but is unlikely to perish. Chances are e-books will coexist with paper books in the very long term, and each form will enjoy comparable market shares. But the influence of e-books will grow and they will eventually play a dominant role.

Whether and when the Ministry of Education will promote educational e-books nationwide is crucial to such changes. Technically, we will need five to 10 years to address security and stability concerns over e-books, in order to convince the Ministry of Education that e-books are right for students. This is expected to spur a fundamental change in the reading habits of the next generation.

The People's Publishing House has made solid efforts to publish e-books. In cooperation with manufacturers of e-book readers, we adhere to our own designs, rather than using a one-size-fits-all technology solution. In addition, we hired a couple of technicians first and, with their help, determined a feasible plan. We then divided our needs into different functions and selected best solution for each one.