• 5 Billion Points of Data Analyses to Reveal Children’s Reading Interests
BEIJING, May 13, 2019 : On May 8th, the “2018 Children’s Digital Reading Report Release Conference” was held in Beijing, co-sponsored by Chinese Academy of Press and Publication and KaDa Story, China’s leading digital content platform. Sally Xie (founder and CEO of KaDa Story), Yimin Dong (deputy secretary of the party committee of Chinese Academy of Press and Publication, secretary of the Discipline Inspection Commission), Biao Wang (director of Digital Publishing Institute of China Press and Publication), Zihan Mei (leading researcher in Chinese Academy of Press and Publication, Children’s literature writer, Professor of Shanghai Normal University), Zhigeng Wang (director of the National Museum of Classic Books of National Library of China, director of Children’s Museum), and other experts in the field attended the event to discuss the current status and future of children’s content publishing as well as the popularization of children’s digital reading.
The conference released China’s first digital reading report based on children’s perspective, revealing the reading interests of 20 million Chinese children through 5 billion points of data.
Digital reading has become common practice, and the potential size of the Chinese children’s market has reached 500 billion yuan.
With the development of mobile Internet, the proportion of digital reading conducted among Chinese children continues to rise, and digital reading has gradually become one of the mainstream reading methods for children. According to the 2018 Chinese Children’s Digital Reading Report (hereinafter referred to as the “Report”), the potential number of Chinese children’s digital reading users in 2018 is nearly 250 million, and the potential market size is 500 billion yuan.
Based on the data collected on KaDa Story platform and combined with other professional data sources of the National Bureau of Statistics, Chinese Academy of Press and Publication, and industry publishing units, the Report comprehensively analyzes the current status of digital reading for children in China. According to the data, the digital reading rate of Chinese children has increased on a yearly basis, and the per capita daily reading volume has increased to 4.4 in 2018. The age structure tends to be younger, with a full coverage of infants, pupils, and young adults.
In terms of geographical distribution, the second-tier cities are still the main reading groups, but users are rapidly infiltrating into third- and fourth-tier cities.Overseas users have gradually expanded from Southeast Asia to Europe and the United States, meanwhile the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy and other countries have ranked among the top ten for the first time because of their active users. The report also shows that Chinese parents’ willingness to consume increases rapidly and the monthly repurchase rate has nearly tripled. More than half of the parents are willing to continue paying for children’s digital reading.
In general, Chinese children’s digital reading has become common practice. With the development of 5G technology and digital reading devices, children’s mobile reading is ushering in new enthusiasm.
5 billion points of data refines content evaluation system, discerns children’s reading interests and facilitates and helps smart publishing.
The well-established market environment has laid a good foundation for global content to reach China. However, the current content selection is often guided by one’s own experiences. Due to the separation between content, and the lack of mutual understanding between editors and readers, the phenomenon of “castle in the air” is inevitable. This Report first proposed a “Children’s Digital Content Evaluation System” in the industry. It is child-oriented and data-driven, which will improve the value judgment model of traditional publishing and boost smart content publishing and distribution.
It is understood that this system relies on 5 billion points of reading data generated by 20 million users of the KaDa Story platform over 4 years, and comprehensively analyzes children’s reading needs and preferences from four dimensions, including book opened and reopened rate, book completed rate, repeated reading rate and subscription volume. It effectively evaluates the content quality and economic benefits of the book, offering advice and suggestions for content providers to optimize the creation, as well as predicting the distribution effect, of a book in a short time. Utilizing this evaluation system, KaDa Story brought to light some of the promising Chinese children’s favorite books, such as An Encyclopedia of Animals: Natural Legends, and once it was launched, it became a best-selling book immediately.
The Report also reveals some intriguing phenomena. Popular science books have gradually become the rigid demand of Chinese parents and children. High-quality science picture books, such as Insects and Beauty, Dinosaurs Ultimate Duel, Science: The Fantasy of Nano Kingdom, not only have a large number of subscribers, but also rank higher in the book completed rate and repeated reading rate.
In addition, although the children content IP has been industrialized and many new IPs will be created each year, in fact, the classic IP remains popular among children. Nowadays, they still LOVE to read Disney Classic Bravory Story, The Smurfs Classic Picture Storybook, Calabash Brothers: Chinese Animation Collection and other books. These books have been digitally transformed from best-selling products to long-selling products.
Based on the authentic children’s reading data, a list of Chinese children’s favorite books has been selected during this conference. Colorful Fly (from Smurf Classic Picture Story Compilation), Screw: My First Set of Scientific Picture Stories ([Russia] Aircraft Joint Co., Ltd. / original), Go camping” ([Canada] written and illustrated by Melanie Watt) and other impressive books are included in the list, among which Walt Disney (China) Co., Ltd. was voted to be as the most popular digital content brand in 2018.
2018 Chinese Children’s Digital Reading Report provides a reference for examining the Chinese children’s reading ecology in the digital age. It is also the first time to “discover children” in the field of digital reading to enhance people’s understanding on the real needs of children. Sally Xie, founder and CEO of KaDa Story, mentioned that, “Children indeed are the subject of reading, therefore, the ultimate purpose of a prosperous children’s book publishing environment should be rooted for children’s development. Expert recommendations and parents’ choices cannot completely replace children’s choices. In the context of the rapid development of children’s content, we’re hoping to encourage and empower children with the stories they really love, and those are the most valuable contents.”
