Publishers want bigger piece of the action as schools shift to e-books
Publishers and hi-tech firms are demanding a bigger slice of the action in the government's HK$140 million drive to switch the city's publicly funded schools over to e-textbooks.
Creating a central depository and an e-commerce platform for e-learning materials were among the key recommendations of the working group on the development of e-learning resources, which released its report last month.
Educational publishers want the government to build a payment gateway on the Education City website, the educational resource portal that will host the central depository, so they can put their e-books up for sale alongside free learning materials.
The city's school textbook sector, which has an annual turnover of HK$1.5 billion, stands to be squeezed by the switch to e-textbooks and other measures proposed by the working group. Publishers say they will have to move into e-textbook production to maintain their profit margins of 5 to 6 per cent, but say it is too early to put a figure on the size of the e-textbook market. The Educational Publishers Association has told the Education Bureau its support for the e-learning plan is conditional on the government adopting a business model that allows publishers to lodge their e-books in the central depository.
Association president Wong Wai-man said: 'We have got to ensure that the government has some sort of payment gateway on this e-learning platform so that publishers can receive payment for their materials. It may be on a subscription basis, whether for schools or individual students. It has yet to be worked out. But I think the more convenient way is to charge a school according to the number of classes.'
Mr Wong said the proposed HK$50,000 funding over three years for each school to buy e-learning materials was 'totally insufficient' and the government needed to increase it to create a viable e-textbook market.
The working group recommended that the government help set up a cross-sector consortium to promote collaboration between schools, publishers and IT firms.
