60 pct Chinese read books on mobile phone

BEIJING - The page has turned for paper books, as cell phones have become the favored way to read media in China, according to findings of a national survey released on Tuesday.

About 64 percent of adults read digitally in 2015, up 5.9 percentage points, while 58.4 percent read paper books, only a 0.4 percentage-point increase, according to an annual survey on reading habits, which polled 45,911 adults in 29 provincial divisions.

The survey, conducted by the Chinese Academy of Press and Publication, revealed that 60 percent of respondents read on their mobile phones in 2015, up 8.2 percentage points than the previous year.

On average, readers read 3.26 e-books, while 4.58 paper books were read per capita in 2015.

Chinese people spend more time reading on their digital devices than paper books. More than 60 minutes was spent reading on mobile phone each day in 2015, compared with 33 minutes per day in 2014.

Among all the mobile phone readers, more than 87 percent read via the popular app WeChat, the survey shows.