Evolution of the Chinese e-magazine

The rise of online media begins to affect China’s print publication market.

The past two years have been a golden time for Chinese Web 2.0 concept companies. Of all the venture capital invested in China last year - totaling more than US$1.6 billion - about US$100 million was pumped into e-magazines, according to Yu Gan, CEO of Xplus, the first e-magazine website in China. Chinese netizens can currently choose from a pool of more than 200 e-magazine websites.

Acer, Lenovo Investment and China Merchants Group collectively invested US$4.5 million in Xplus; IDG invested about US$20 million in POCO, one of the largest e-magazine vendors in China; and Carlyle invested US$10 million in ZCOM, the largest e-magazine operating platform in China.

An e-magazine can survive with just 50,000 readers, said Li Xiguang, professor of the School of Journalism and Communication at Tsinghua University. “Without the difficulties of securing publication license numbers and free from expenses for paper, printing and distribution, e-magazines usually operate at a very low cost,” explained Li. “This is undoubtedly the main reason for the sudden, explosive growth of e-magazines in China.”

Case Studies

Sina

Sina officially rolled out a brand-new e-magazine channel in July. Sina began to explore e-mag market back in 2005, and partnered with Vika.cn, an e-mag solution provider and publishing platform, to develop and distribute Sina’s various e-magazines.

As with other Chinese e-magazine services, Sina’s channel will not only distribute Sina’s original e-magazines,but will also act as a publishing platform to publish and distribute third-party products. Sina will release a new blog magazine in August, which will help Sina’s bloggers to easily build personal e-magazines based on their blog posts, photos and uploaded videos.

Image source: China Web 2.0 Review

China Daily: Ni Hao from China

Ni Hao from China, an electronic magazine launched by Chinadaily.com.cn is the first English e-zine on Chinese culture in China. It brings a new experience to Chinese culture aficionados with its advanced use of the latest technology, animation, video and audio segments, and photos.

Image source: China Daily

Xu Jinglei: “Kai La”
In May 2007 Chinese actress, director and star blogger Xu Jinglei launched the first issue of her e-magazine “Kai La”. The online magazine mainly covers entertainment, current affairs, literature and the economy. Many renowned Chinese writers, including Wang Shuo, Han Han and Gu Xiaobai, contributed articles to Kia La’s first issue. According to reports, income from advertising in the first issue of Kai La was over 1 million RMB, and sources predict that ads are expected to bring in over 20 million RMB per year for the magazine.

Image source: China.org

Trend Impact

When blogging was extended to include audio-visual content, podcasts, digital magazines, video streaming and a slew of other new-media platforms were born. Digital magazines are a popular feature of Chinese Web 2.0 community sites, and since they are usually freely downloadable, it is predicted that they will eclipse their print brethren in the very near future.

According to iResearch, a consulting firm, 2005 was the year digital magazines caught the Chinese public’s attention. It has estimated that there were 20 million readers in 2005, 32 million in 2006, and there will be 82 million by 2010. The same study estimates that the market size in terms of revenue was a mere (US$2.6 million) RMB 20 million in 2005. However, this figure snowballed to (US$13 million) RMB 100 million in 2006, and is predicted to reach RMB 1.25 billion (US$160 million) by 2010.

E-magazines have become popular for a number of reasons. Unlike Chinese print magazines, e-magazines have so far been able to avoid censorship, although the relevant authorities have been taking more of an interest in online publications. Whether this will extend to direct control of content has yet to be seen.

E-magazines are much cheaper to produce and distribute than print publication. While they still have the traditional style of a magazine, they can employ all manner of multimedia wizardry to enliven content and presentation. Revenue models are generally based on advertising and/or subscription, although some Chinese advertising agencies have so far been reluctant to place e-magazine ads because they say loyal readerships have yet to be established.

Rate this post:

No rating yet