Chinese online literature witnesses boom over past decade

The past decade has witnessed an unprecedented boom in the development of China's online literature market, with impressive growth made in terms of market revenue, creative output, user engagement and overseas presence, according to a report released on Friday in Beijing.

Issued at the sixth China Online Literature + Conference, the report shows that from 2012 to 2021, the revenue of this burgeoning market expanded from 2.45 billion yuan (over $356.7 million) to 26.72 billion yuan (over $3.89 billion) in China, with the number of online literary works increasing from over 8 million in 2012 to more than 32 million by 2021.

The industry has also witnessed a staggering growth in its pool of talent and creativity, and a rapidly expanding reader base, with the number of authors growing from 4.19 million in 2012 to 22.78 million by 2021, and the number of readers soaring from 230 million to 490 million over ten years.

As an effective way of offering a new global lens for telling Chinese stories, China's online literature market has also been making strides in winning the hearts of readers across the world. In 2021, the revenue scale of the overseas market hit over 2.9 billion yuan (over $422 million), indicating a significant increase in the worldwide popularity and recognition of Chinese online literature among the global readership.