A national survey by the Chinese Academy of Press and Publication released on April 20, Monday, revealed that digital media have surpassed books as the most read media in the country, the Xinhua News Agency reported.
Xinhua said that the result was based on an annual survey on reading habits conducted among 35,500 adults in 29 provincial divisions across China.
The survey showed that about 58.1 percent of Chinese adults read digital media in 2014, which increased by about 8 percent, compared to 58 percent who read books or an increase of only 0.2 percent.
The survey, which was conducted in September, showed that 51.8 percent of polled respondents used mobile phones to read, while readers who used ordinary computers reached 49.4 percent and 5.3 percent accounted for digital readers such as Kindle.
The report said that the survey included tablet computers for the first time this year and 9.9 percent of those surveyed used them.
Digital reading in China has quickly gained adherents, the report added. In 2008, there were only about 24.5 percent who read digitally among the respondents, and in 2014, about 22.3 percent of Chinese adults read e-books, which increased by about 19.2 percent from previous year.
According to the survey, each person read an average 3.22 e-books, an increase from 2.48 in 2013, while 4.56 books were read per capita in 2014, which slightly dropped from 4.77 in 2013.
The survey further showed that the Chinese spent more time reading digital media than traditional books. Most readers spend about 55 minutes reading online and 33.82 minutes on reading on mobile phone each day, compared with 18.76 minutes on books and 18.8 minutes on newspapers, the report added.
The survey revealed that the amount of time Chinese spent on reading books, newspapers and magazines all increased in 2014, as 67.6 percent of Chinese aged between 18 and 39 were mostly into digital reading.