The audiobook segment in China is booming, experiencing significant growth in recent times, PublishersWeekly reported citing a white paper published recently by Xinhua News Agency. As per the report, the segment grew from 1.96 billion yuan in 2015 to more than 10 billion yuan in 2023. It is 8.8 audiobooks that the average Chinese consumers listened to last year, which betters the corresponding figures in the US.
The biggest player in the segment is Ximalaya. It has more than 70 percent of the market to itself and counts 345 million monthly active users. Other audiobook service providers active in the Chinese market include QingTing and Lizhi, to name a few. Overall, there are four membership tiers that the audiobook service providers offer, with paid membership, which includes both paid subscriptions and one-time purchases, making up 51 percent of the revenue generated.
Advertising is the preferred means to generate revenue from the free plan. “Because so many of these platforms offer free listening sessions and free content, they’re really using those free materials as premiums to build a strong listener base, and monetizing through integrated ads,” said Winnie Li, senior manager and business development executive at OverDrive.
Audiobook publishers also offer live broadcasts in China which too are highly in demand in the country, cashing in on the popularity enjoyed by celebrity narrators. Apart from these, the platforms also make money from selling branded hardware such as headphones and other devices that one might need for listening to audiobooks.
Audiobooks are equally popular among men and women, with those falling between the 24 to 40 age brackets tending to listen to audiobooks more than others. When it comes to the specific genre, it is fiction that enjoys the largest popularity, accounting for 60 percent of all audiobooks listened in the country.
More than half of the parents make it a point to let their kids listen to audiobooks regularly. The report also revealed 82 percent of the listeners share stories with their friends while 19 percent seem to have a strange fascination, that of listening to audiobooks with their pets.
However, in spite of audiobooks attaining wide popularity in China, publishers there have yet to hit upon a business model that is stable and sustainable over the long run. “This is primarily due to substantial investment costs, competition, contracting with top-tier narrators, and consumer expectations for free content,” said Winnie Li at the inaugural International Summit of Audio Publishers, held in New York City in September.
With a keen interest in tech, I make it a point to keep myself updated on the latest developments in technology and gadgets. That includes smartphones or tablet devices but stretches to even AI and self-driven automobiles, the latter being my latest fad. Besides writing, I like watching videos, reading, listening to music, or experimenting with different recipes. The motion picture is another aspect that interests me a lot, and I’ll likely make a film sometime in the future.
