After 17 years in business, Beijing’s The Bookworm closed in November 2019. Photo: Simon Song
Coronavirus: China’s private bookstores struggling to survive as sales drop 90 per cent, stores remain closed
- China has over 70,000 brick-and-mortar bookstores, but they are among numerous small and medium-sized enterprises struggling due to a lack of customers
- The virus is a further blow to the industry that was already under pressure from online rivals, as well as a growing trend of reading books on electronic devices
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Coronavirus pandemic
After 17 years in business, Beijing’s The Bookworm closed in November 2019. Photo: Simon Song