Features

Taiwan publishing industry enters digital era

Taiwan’s digital publications are on the rise, thanks to more tablet computers and large-screen smartphones, which are popular among local readers. (CNA)

• Publication Date：01/15/2012
• Source： Taiwan Today
• By  Aaron Hsu

At a forum held Dec. 30 in Taipei, crowds streamed into an auditorium to listen to a discussion among renowned Taiwanese writers about the future of digital publishing. “In my view, the age of reading digital publications is arriving soon,” said Hao Yu-xiang, professor at the Graduate Institute of Taiwan Literature in National Chung Cheng University.

“When I was a student, to write an essay I had to walk from my research office to the campus library to get the necessary materials. But now, with the Internet, I can effortlessly sail across a sea of books in a matter of seconds, and arrive at the article or work I need from my list of books,” she said.

Hao made the remarks on the last day of a three-day meeting of novelists, Internet observers and publishing industrialists from both sides of the Taiwan Strait. Talking about the challenges and opportunities of digital literature, Hao said she was strongly in favor of new technologies. “I can now easily carry with me ‘The 24 Histories’ or ‘The Complete Works of Lu Xun,’ both multivolume works, on just a single mobile device.”

The convenience she saw is one of the foremost advantages offered by digital publication, which refers to any content based on computer compilation and displayed on some sort of screen. Since digital publication does away with paper, it transcends the physical limits of weight and size, and can help publishers save on the hefty cost of printing old-fashioned tomes.

“Besides convenience, digital publications are strong in multimedia presentation,” said Stephen C. Chang, director of the Department of Publication Affairs in the Government Information Office. “They also eliminate the problem of out-of-print books, and help readers retrieve information easily by typing in keywords.”

The public and private sectors in Taiwan have both been paying attention to the increasing importance of digital publishing, Chang noted. In 2002, for instance, the government kicked off the National Digital Archive Program, which called for countless documents at Academia Sinica, the National Palace Museum and universities to be digitized. All this information was uploaded to a website in 2008, so that Internet users can now browse through photos and manuscripts on academic subjects ranging from anthropology to zoology.

As to the private sector, Yuan-Liou Publishing Co. Ltd., a major publisher in Taiwan, set up a subsidiary company named Wordpedia.com in 2000 to sell electronic encyclopedias on subjects as diverse as Taiwanese aborigines, biology and historical monuments. Last year Yuan-Liou opened the Taiwan Academic Online portal, which makes more than 130,000 academic journals available to readers, who can now read, download, print and save the articles for a price.

GIO Minister Philip Yang (second from left), with writers from mainland China and heavyweights in the local publishing business, attends the opening ceremony of a digital reading forum running from Dec. 28 to 30 in Taipei. (CNA)

“Many companies in the business have seen the writing on the wall,” Chang said. “They predict that content richness, technological advances, smartphones and tablet computers will all help digital publications triumph over printed matter in the long run.”

More than 37 percent of Taiwanese traditional publishing firms launched digital publications in 2010, 10 percent more than in 2009, according to Chang. Digital literature was the most popular category, followed by textbooks and children’s storybooks.

Although the trend of the future is clear, not all participants have taken the plunge into digital publishing. Indeed, so far the competition is being dominated by big publishing houses. “About 65 percent of all publishers are simply too small to afford the technical expertise required for managing the transition,” Chang said, adding that his definition of a small publisher was one with fewer than 10 employees and less than NT$5 million (US$165,000) in annual sales.

To help the entire industry make progress, the GIO launched a two-year subsidy project in 2010. The program provides up to NT$6 million in funding to a single company, on the condition the recipient agrees to share the know-how it acquires through government help with at least 10 other small and medium-sized publishers.

“The initiative spawned more than 3,000 e-books in the first year, while another 5,000 digital volumes are forecast to be finished by the end of 2011,” Chang noted. “The aim is to produce as much content as possible, so that readers can have a large selection to choose from.”

One of the companies to receive funding support was I-mei Multimedia e-Content Production and Marketing Co. Ltd. Its staff of more than 100 engineers turned the printed pages of hairstyle magazines, travel guidebooks and so on into digital content that can be easily accessed over the Internet.

According to I-mei, the content provider’s business model is ultimately what determined whether each publication’s content could be fully transformed from its print version to its digital counterpart.

Although not a major print publisher, I-mei hopes to become a major contender in the digital publishing sector. The company now has an array of original animated storybooks, mathematics textbooks, the latest fashion magazines and classic Chinese literature appealing to different reader groups.

“Not only are we able to offer ePub-formatted books, we also use the latest Flash technology,” said Jack Wong, CEO of I-Mei, who explained that Flash technology is a multimedia platform used to add animation, video and interactivity to documents.

As an example of the kind of work his company offers, and some of the challenges it currently faces, Wong mentioned “The Mega-Catastrophe,” which examines and explains the forces behind earthquakes, tsunamis and volcanoes using a 3-D format.

“We made the book in the wake of the great earthquake that struck Japan on March 11 of last year. The dynamic illustrations can help more people understand the kinds of results that a devastating disaster can cause, how to prevent them from happening and how to mitigate them,” Wong said.

“The Mega Catastrophe e-book” by I-mei Multimedia e-Content Production and Marketing Co. Ltd. illustrates the formation process of a sea surge with 3-D animation. (Courtesy of I-mei)

In preparing the work, Wong said, obtaining copyrights of photos and music was a daunting challenge for the company. “We used more than 3,000 photos, and we had to find out the photographers that took the pictures one by one and negotiate with them on a case-by-case basis.”

“Sony Corp. also denied our request to use their copyrighted version of ‘Amazing Grace’ as our background music, so we had to hire an entire orchestra to record the song live,” Wong said, adding that to facilitate music recording, three studios are equipped at I-mei’s headquarters.

Wong, who doubles as secretary general of the Association of Taiwan Digital Publishing Alliances, said Taiwan will likely see the creation of a cloud computing-based digital publishing platform in the middle of this year. “Our association is collaborating with the Taipei Computer Association on hardware and software integration. In the future, the platform will help publishers quickly digitize authorized music, photos and the content on more than 5,000 website templates,” he said.

Chang added that a golden opportunity now presents itself to Taiwanese publishers, who can try to tap into the vast mainland Chinese market, with which Taiwan shares a common language and culture. He noted that Far Eastone Telecommunications Co. Ltd., one of the island’s three major telecommunication operators, is already exploring the enormous potential of the mainland Chinese reading market.

The company recently announced a cooperative partnership with China Mobile Ltd., the biggest Internet service provider in the mainland, paving the way for Taiwanese content generators to make inroads across the strait via the Internet.

“Digital publishing is not just a small addition to traditional publishing, but an inevitable trend that will engulf all of publishing,” Chang said. “The private sector can compete freely in the marketplace, but the government will also try to play a key role in promoting digital publications.” (HZW)

Write to Aaron Hsu at pj1210meister@mail.gio.gov.tw