The picture shows students from the No. 1 Middle School of Nanhe County, Xingtai City, Hebei Province using digital devices to read. (Published by Xinhua News Agency)

From JD Reading, WeChat Reading to Migu Reading, various application software are promoting the increasing popularity of digital reading. With the issuance of 5G commercial licenses, new technologies such as big data and artificial intelligence will have a positive impact on the digital content industry - not only improving user experience, but also promoting more abundant digital reading application scenarios.

Beijing citizen Liu Yan has recently become obsessed with the popular drama "The Twelve Hours of Chang'an". "It was too slow to follow the TV series. I was anxious to know the ending, so I spent money on JD.com to read the novel. I felt that this TV series was adapted really well."

Digital reading is becoming increasingly popular driven by various application software. Public data shows that in 2018, China's overall digital reading market size reached 25.45 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 19.6%, and is still in a period of rapid growth. Among them, the mass reading market accounts for more than 90% and is the leading force in industry development.

With the issuance of 5G commercial licenses, majorNew technologies such as data and artificial intelligence will have a positive impact on the digital content industry: on the one hand, technological upgrades and in-depth digitization will improve user experience; on the other hand, the application scenarios of digital reading will be more abundant.

The number of users continues to rise

"Digital reading, as a new reading method in the all-media era, has emerged as the times require, flourished, and become popular, which has greatly enriched people's reading experience and spiritual and cultural life. Today, we are already in the digital reading era of 'one screen and thousands of volumes', and digital reading will continue to maintain a good momentum of rapid development." said Feng Shixin, deputy director of the Publication Bureau of the Central Propaganda Department.

Data shows that national reading is booming, and the number of digital reading users in my country continues to rise. In 2018, the number of mass reading users and professional reading users in my country reached 430 million and 14.179 million respectively.

Multiple reading forms have driven a significant increase in the usage rate of morning peak users. In 2018, users' reading behavior showed obvious regularity in different time periods, showing new characteristics such as the rise of the morning peak and the shift of the evening peak. In terms of reading time, teenagers’ digital reading shows a trend of high duration and high frequency. Market research data shows that among my country's digital reading users aged 14 to 18, nearly 60% read for more than an hour each time, and more than 80% of users read more than three times a week.

“I didn’t originally have a digital reading habit, but a few friends always shared books on WeChat Reading in the WeChat circle, and I started using them after reading them.” Luan He, who works in an enterprise, said.

Users’ willingness to pay for digital reading continues to increase significantly. "In 2018, my country's digital reading users' willingness to pay for e-books has reached 66.4%. At the same time, the actual payment amount of users of all ages is higher than their willingness to pay. In other words, people are reluctant to pay before paying, but once they find a good book, their willingness to pay will exceed expectations." Zhang Yijun, first vice president of the China Audiovisual and Digital Publishing Association, introduced.

Compared with 2017, although the number of financing transactions in the digital reading industry dropped from 75 to 57 in 2018, the amount of financing showed an upward trend, reaching 7.03 billion yuan, indicating that the digital reading industry is still favored by the capital market and has large room for development.

Sun Shoushan, chairman of the China Audiovisual and Digital Publishing Association, believes that with the continuous advancement of 5G and other technologies, the integrated development of all media has provided the possibility for diversified reading, and has brought inexhaustible impetus to the promotion of digital reading.

High-quality content continues to emerge

“The number of authors is growing steadily, especially the emergence of professional author training courses, which has further improved the writing level of creators and led to the emergence of high-quality content.” Zhang Yijun said.

Data shows that nearly 70% of digital reading users believe that the quality of digital reading content has improved in 2018. From the perspective of digital reading content, three-dimensional and diverse realistic themes are more popular among users, and original online content on urban life and workplace business wars are popular. Data shows that the behavioral preferences of digital reading users continue to change as they age. People between the ages of 14 and 18 prefer youth and campus themes, and show long-duration and high-frequency reading habits; people between the ages of 25 and 30 prefer workplace and business war content, with an average annual reading volume of 13.22 books per capita, exceeding the average level of digital reading users.

At the same time, media integration characterized by socialization, as well as online and offline paper and electronic integration and other models have brought new growth points to digital reading, and innovations in cutting-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence, blockchain, and 5GThe application further taps into the new endogenous energy of digital reading.

Feng Shixin believes that high-quality digital reading depends on the organic combination of high-quality publishing content and advanced digital technology. It is necessary to proactively adapt to the laws of information dissemination in the all-media era, reshape the production and dissemination process, explore diversified digital reading paths and methods, and truly realize the move from addition to integration. It is necessary to deepen the innovation of systems and mechanisms, promote the integration of channel operation and management, establish and improve the institutional design, policy measures and operating mechanisms for knowledge integration, service integration and promotion of integration, and create a good environment and conditions conducive to the deep integration of traditional reading and digital reading.

Due to the continuous emergence of high-quality content, my country’s cultural products are showing an upward trend. In 2018, the model of online literature companies going overseas was further improved, with more than 500 online literature works translated overseas. Overseas Chinese online literature websites have more than 500,000 daily active users and an average of more than 5 million daily visits. With the active promotion of all parties, China's academic, knowledge, and literature databases have entered government public libraries and well-known university libraries around the world, and the domestic knowledge platform has launched three online courses that are currently the world's largest.

In addition, the implementation of the "One ​​Belt, One Road" initiative will build a basic bridge for digital reading to go overseas. The further expansion of overseas markets will attract more capital injections. In the context of content consumption, diverse products, and more types of overseas exports, Chinese culture will also be closely integrated with local culture, further accelerating multilateral cultural exchanges and integration.

Technology empowers digital reading

Putting on virtual reality glasses, the pictures in the book immediately become three-dimensional images. From paper reading to digital reading, from PC reading to mobile reading, from the era of reading to the era of screen reading, every development and progress in reading methods is the product of innovation drive and represents the development direction of reading.

Feng Shixin said that it is necessary to use technology to update business formats, use technology to enrich performance, use technology to promote integration, continue to expand the production methods, product formats and service forms of digital reading, grasp the communication mode of terminals that follow people and information circulates around people, strengthen the application of digital content and communication methods, build social communication and precise push systems, and effectively meet the needs of users in the all-media era.

2019 is the year of 5G commercialization. New technologies such as big data and artificial intelligence will definitely have a positive impact on the digital content industry. Zhang Yijun analyzed that on the production side, the digitalization process of the industry will be significantly accelerated and good technical application support will be provided for digital content. On the communication side, technological assistance will optimize communication processes and channels and accelerate the development of media integration. On the customer experience side, intelligent, multi-channel content consumption methods can accurately match content with users, optimize user experience, and improve content monetization efficiency.

"In the future, 5G development will have a profound impact on my country's digitalization process, innovating existing communication models with more efficient transmission rates, more diverse bearer media, and richer business experiences, bringing unprecedented opportunities to the digital content industry." said Liu Xin, general manager of China Mobile Migu Company.

From 2G to 4G, mass communication has gradually realized high-speed communication, multimedia display, large-scale coverage, and instant interaction. Now, the upcoming 5G will give technological wings to the integration of all media and everything as a media. Technology upgrading usually opens up a new application space in the technology industry, and communication technology asA top-level technology, its upgrades often radiate and drive rapid development in all walks of life. The bandwidth of 5G is 10 to 100 times that of 4G, the latency is one-fifth of 4G, and the connection is 100 times that of current 4G. This will promote the development of smart cities, unmanned technology, blockchain, industrial Internet and other fields, and further realize the interconnection of everything.

Liu Xin introduced that the combination of 5G with big data, cloud computing, artificial intelligence, Internet of Things and other technologies will expand the digital reading application space and make the development trend that everything can become a media more obvious. The integration of virtual reality, augmented reality, games, audio and video and other content will make the presentation of content more three-dimensional and diverse, thereby helping to create a new industrial space and market value. For digital content, artificial intelligence voice exchange and multi-scenario application connections will give traditional reading products new life.

Experts believe that with technological upgrades, digital reading services will become more sophisticated and diverse. In the future, facing the diverse needs of users, the digital reading industry will provide users with more comprehensive services such as multi-level, professional, intelligent, audio and scene-based services. With the development of emerging technologies, the types of smart receiving devices are gradually enriched, and more consumption scenarios will appear to better meet consumer needs.