Jessie Kung used to buy books at airport bookshops, but that was last year. The 32-year-old still visits those stores - but only to check out the titles of books that interest her. Then she takes out her iPad, taps its touch screen for a while and nails down her target. She pays a fraction of the regular price or sometimes nothing at all and her book is ready to read in seconds.
'I may still go to libraries,' said Kung. But to buy physical books? 'No, I don't think so.'
With the increasing popularity of mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets, reading habits today are being transformed to become more digitally oriented. This year, the Hong Kong Book Fair features two theme zones on e-publishing with 32 exhibitors, a 60 per cent increase on last year. Smaller seminars on the e-publishing segment are now a regular feature within the publishing industry. Sales of online e-book applications are booming. All these seem to indicate that the age of digital reading is coming.
Yet the market is far from mature. In the past year, more than 1,000 local e-books were published in Hong Kong, less than 2 per cent of the total book market share, according to an estimate derived by sales of major publications in the city. Globally, the figure is 10 to 15 per cent, according to Publishing Perspectives, an authoritative online voice of the global publishing industry. The US is by far the most advanced. It is estimated to be six months to a year ahead of Europe, two years ahead of the world, where 80 per cent of its publications are only in digital format.
'It's only within the last two years worldwide that publishers have got comfortable with e-publishing,' said Edward Nawotka, editor-in-chief of Publishing Perspectives.
'The transition to digital is inevitable,' Nawotka said. 'It's like petrol and cars. We are going to drive the electrical cars, the question is when.'