Global e-reader compound growth rate of 68% in the next 4 years

According to institutional data, the global e-reader market reached 3.5 million units in 2009, a surge of 400%, and the compound annual growth rate for the next four years was 68%. In 2010, the United States will still be the largest market for e-readers, and the growth of the Chinese market will be the biggest hot spot. Under the background of the great prosperity of the cultural industry and the escalation of consumption, there is still a large market space for domestic book market demand, among which digital publishing will grow faster than traditional publishing.

Digital publishing industry chain mainly includes content creation, online platform, wireless download and transmission, data processing, and terminal products. Content providers are in the upper reaches of the industry chain, and the main barriers to entry are the licensing systems for the publishing industry. The competition landscape of content providers in the market is fragmented, and the regional division status is obvious. The hardware providers are in the downstream of the industrial chain. The main barriers are technical barriers. Hanwang Technology (002362) electronic readers account for 95% of the domestic market and are in a monopoly position. Its electronic paper book was launched in October 2008. The sales volume was 13,200 units in that year, and sales in 2009 surged to 266,300 units. The explosive growth of the company's sales on the one hand stems from the increase in domestic e-reader market capacity, and on the other hand from Hanwang Technology's investment in product channel expansion.

It can be seen that the hardware company is expanding its strategy through rapid channel expansion and marketing to stabilize its market share. The impact of digital publishing on traditional publishing, the loosening of content industry regulations, and the country’s encouragement of cross-regional restructuring of publishers have all contributed to the pace at which content providers have stepped up acquisitions and extended their reach into the digital publishing industry chain.

There is no company in the country that has similar content, online platforms, and terminal products at the same time. However, both content and hardware providers are eager to integrate the digital publishing industry chain. Therefore, at this stage, the contents and hardware manufacturers mainly take the form of business cooperation or joint investment in the form of a joint venture to seek a win-win situation. In the current case of domestic content and hardware cooperation, the distribution of interests in the various aspects of the digital publishing industry chain has not been straightened out, resulting in high selling prices of terminal hardware and the subsequent charging mode of content resources. The construction of electronic paper book profit model is the primary solution to the development of the entire digital publishing industry chain industry.

Listed companies with capital and resource advantages will play a leading role in the construction of the digital publishing industry chain. The list of content-listed companies is recommended by Publishing Media, Times Publishing, Xinhua Media, and Hanwang Technology recommended by hardware listed companies.