When the Commercial Press launched its e-commerce subsidiary CP1897.com four years ago, it did not envision its e-books as a reservoir for Greater China's first Chinese e-library system.
The venture began as a digital print-on-demand system for out-of-print historical and academic Chinese books.
'Since the service was offered for personal and business use, the number of e-books printed snowballed,' CP1897.com chief operations officer Edmond Hung Chee-ping said.
Although sales of print-on-demand e-books for personal use did not pick up as quickly as expected, demand from businesses and public and university libraries in Greater China flourished, he said.
The company now has more than 15,000 Chinese titles in its e-book catalogue, which it says is the largest collection in the region.
To capitalise on its stock, CP1897.com is developing an e-library system to manage the collection.
'The United States already has a lab-library which provides large quantities of English e-books to libraries around the world; likewise, we can create one for Chinese e-books,' Mr Hung said.