Publishing houses or newspapers specializing in printed books have slipped into e-book publishing. This fact became evident at the recently concluded "Digital Publishing Expo" in Beijing.

By the end of 2008, ninety-percent of 578 publishing houses in China had merged into the e-book publishing business.

China Publishing Group has invested tens of millions of yuan into e-book publishing. This is their new product... a e-book that will be introduced to the public soon. It can be read on computers or dedicated hardware devices.

Song Xiaohong, Vice CEO of China Publishing Group said "Our revenue from e-books has increased by as much as three hundred percent, or six hundred percent in recent years."

Hanvon company has become a big name in this field over a short period of time.

Liu Yingjian, CEO of Hanvon Inc. said "The revenue of our e-book products climbs every month. We have been a leading member in this field. Now we are one of the biggest selling e-book companies in the world, along with US's Amazon and Japan's Sony."

Ms. Yan is pregnant. She has just bought an e-book produced by Hanvon.

Ms. Yan said "It has a big memory, and is able to store tens of thousand of books in this palm-sized device. Also, there's no radiation, and will not harm my baby. The screen doesn't harm my eyes either."

The screen of this e-book reading device uses hi-tech technology, which will prevent eye fatigue even after reading for a long time. And the battery can last over ten days on a single charge.

The website for China National Knowledge Infrastructure, a major resource containing research papers of every field, has signed readers numbering around 20-million.

Experts say revenue from the sale of e-books is near that of printed books.

Given the rise of computer technology and an ever-expanding use of the internet, e-books are destined to bring revolutionary change to people's reading habits.

(CCTV.com July 19, 2009)