More Chinese reading online, but fewer willing to pay

Thanks to the development of digital mobile technology, Chinese are becoming more willing to read online via electronic reading devices, but their awareness of copyright protection still lags.

According to a survey conducted by the Chinese Academy of Press and Publication, more than 50 percent of Chinese readers had tried reading online by the end of 2013, while the rate was only 24.5 percent in 2008.

However, only 38.7 percent of the online readers accepted to pay for downloading of e-books in 2013, a 1.4 percent year-on-year decline.

The average acceptable price for downloading each e-book dropped to only 1.28 yuan ($0.21) from 3.27 yuan in 2012, said the survey.

The survey also found that 58.2 percent of the regular mobile phone readers only accepted free-of-charge e-books.

The survey, as part of the 11th national reading analysis, collected feedback from 40,600 respondents and analyzed data from September 2013 to March of this year.

The growing habit of online reading reflects the boom of China's digital publication business, but the public's free-of-charge preference suggests that there is still a long way to go before copyright consciousness stands on its own in China, said experts.

"The Chinese people have been used to free online resources, most of which are pirated contents acquired without authorization from copyright holders," said Zhang Hongbo, secretary-general of the China Written Works Copyright Society, during the China Digital Publication annual conference on Wednesday.

"E-reading websites and service providers offer free-of-charge contents to readers for high page clicks to lure advertising deals, which has set up a vicious circle in the business," Zhang said.

According to the 2013 China Online Copyright Annual Report released at the conference on Wednesday, the output of e-book, digital newspaper and magazine subscriptions reached 5.8 billion yuan in 2013, only 3 percent of the total production value of the digital publication business in China.

"It shows great potential in the e-reading market, so we need more solid measures on protecting copyright products and tackling copyright infringements to cut off the space for free but low-quality pirated contents," said Wei Yushan, president of the Chinese Academy of Press and Publication.