China's digital publishing revenue surges

BEIJING - China's digital publishing business reported year-on-year revenue growth of 40.5 percent in 2012, said a government report Tuesday.

Its annual revenue totaled 193.55 billion yuan ($31.55 billion), accounting for 11.6 percent of the revenue of the whole publishing industry, said the report issued by the State General Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television.

It was the first time that this ratio had passed 10 percent, the report noted.

According to the report, the administration listed digital publications, online music, online cartoons, Internet games, mobile phone games and Internet advertisement as digital publishing.

Last year, the revenue of publishers of e-books, digital magazines and digital newspapers increased by 52.6 percent while more edgy digital content providers such as those of online music and cartoons reported a revenue increase of 291.2 percent.

In addition, the country's whole publishing industry reported a total revenue of 1.66 trillion yuan in 2012, a year-on-year growth of 14.2 percent, according to the report.

About 414,000 kinds of books were published, a year-on-year growth of 12 percent. About 58 percent of them were new books.

However, the print run of books, magazines and newspapers grew more slowly than the previous year, the report added.