More than one hundred publishers, distributors and other players of the digital publishing industry have convened in Beijing for the China Digital Publishing Expo. It shows that the trend of digital reading has been stretching from the cities to the vast countryside.
Statistics published by China's General Administration of Press and Publication shows that people in 270,000 villages of the country now have access to free digital reading.
E-reading is no longer an exclusive privilege enjoyed merely by urban residents.
An expo participator said, "Villagers can borrow the reading gadgets for free and take them back home to read. The contents in the reading gadgets can be updated in their village's cultural center."
The boom in digital publishing has also inspired "digital school bags" in the educational sector.
Digital publishing has changed the workflow of traditional publishing, and urged greater collaboration between publisher and technology provider.
Some experts have forecast China will overtake the United States as the world's largest e-reader market before 2015.
(CNTV.cn July 8, 2011)