电子书与纸质书的对决

Miss Zhang is a lover of digital reading. She likes downloading e-books and putting them in either her tablet computer or cell phone.

At the end of last year, several online e-book dealers opened their own e-book services, with low prices being a key part of their promotion. Miss Zhang plans to buy a digital version of Steve Jobs' biography, but the price surprised her.
Act1 Chinese Female

"The price for the paper book is 51 yuan. The price for the electronic version is 42 yuan! It's too expensive. The paper book, you can keep it as a collector's item, but the electronic version can only be used via other multimedia players. The price is unacceptable."

Another thing frustrating miss Zhang is the limited variety of electronic books on offer. Many online e-book stores claim that they have dozens of thousand of titles, however, many of them are just academic, management and research works. This lack of popular choices has significantly reduced consumers' passion for e-books.

Statistics from DangDang, a popular online store for both paper and e-book, reveal that only a very few popular novels, such as "The Flowers of War", sell more than 10 thousand copies in the first month after the e-book goes on sale. The sales figures for other e-books remain very ordinary. This news may be something of a surprise considering that there was such a big sales promotion of e-books and e-book readers at the end of last year.

However, consumer reaction only reflects part of the chilly e-book market. Traditional publishers also hold a conservative attitude toward the e-book market.

Zhou Zhonghua is the deputy director of Mechanic Industry Press.

"First of all, we haven't seen a mature commercial model for the e-book market. To put it in simple terms, we can't make a profit from it. Also, traditional publishers such as ourselves haven't changed the way we do business. Plus, it takes time for consumers to accept paying to read things electronically."

Sun Peilin is an analyst with Analysys International, an internet information and service provider. He says it's still hard for e-books to compete with traditional book products.

"Currently, the profit produced by the e-book platform is very small. The publishers are concerned that e-books may quickly spread and pirate copies would be common. This may serious affect the sales of paper books. So the publishers are very cautious."

Yi Wenfei is vice general manager of DangDang. He believes there is space for the two commercial models to cooperate.

"It's a very precious market. I hope it won't be overwhelmed by competition. The paper book dealers and e-book dealers should build a platform of cooperation. If you are in the publishing business, if you are dealing with content, then we can help you with distribution."

Insiders reveal that the future of e-books looks promising; however, it takes time for the market to mature. Some suggest that e-book dealers put more effort into the content being provided as well as the sales figures in general. What's more, the e-book market may improve in leaps and bounds if the industry chain is better developed.

For CRI, I am Li Dong.