General Discussion Thread on PTO

17th Mar '13 by harryr

56 comments 25194 reads

Last week saw house broker Westhouse Securities lift its valuation for an astonishing fifth time in the last 100 days. At that rate and trend it could be raised another 12 times this year.

Publishing Technology (LON:PTO) has moved up over 500% since this time last year, however investors should note that it has come from a very low base.

Fabulous for any new investor is the Broker has yet to put any value on the Chinese JV but do believe there is scope for this venture to provide futher upside.

The broker also points out the research spend of £3.3M last year is falling fast as the new digital software is completed.

Publishing Technology PLC has its annual report posted on their web page.

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Harryr

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56 comments

harryr

15th Oct '13

This is what growth is all about, in under one year Westhouse has lifted its target price no less than 7 times.

The house broker has yet to take into account any profits from the Chinese Joint venture at this stage.

14 Oct 2013 Westhouse Securities Add 475.00 5.60p Add
30 Aug 2013 Westhouse securities buy 360.00 475.00 Buy
14 Mar 2013 Westhouse Securities Buy 260.00 360.00 buy
05 Mar 2013 Westhouse Securities Buy 230.00 260.00 Rtains
04 Jan 2013 Westhouse Securities Buy 200.00 230.00 Retains
17 Dec 2012 Westhouse Securities Buy 150.00 200.00 Retains
05 Dec 2012 Westhouse Securities Buy 120.00 150.00 Retains
15 Aug 2012 Westhouse Securities Strong 120.00 120.00 Retains

Contract win

We are encouraged that Publishing Technology (PT) has announced another contract win for its advance software platform. Turpin Distribution is using advance to create a unified global fulfilment system to replace its legacy fulfilment systems. No financial information has been disclosed and we are making no changes to our forecasts.

As per our last comment we believe that the risks to numbers remain firmly to the upside and as a consequence we are again increasing our target price to 560p (from 475p), which is derived by assuming a FY2014E EV/sales multiple of 2.4x and we move our recommendation to Add (from Buy).

lightningtiger

16th Oct '13

I am still a bit cautious on this company but someone has had the guts to put in a lot of money at this point in time. If it breaks out above 530 I might be tempted. It is a bit like Royal Mail in that most of the rise has already taken place already and good profits made. The main difference between these two companies is there is huge potential for PTO with expansion to China. I certainly can't see Royal Mail share price going up about 10x in a couple of years! I shall have to look into this a bit closer. Cheers from Lightningtiger

harryr

16th Oct '13

PTO is valued at £40M.
Fast growing software companies tend to be valued on a P/E of 20 all the way up to 50.
The older but still growing division of PTO Vista, makes £3.240,000 ebitda and has done for years.
The drain on profits over the last five years is fully down to the massive R&D to design and build the two new digital software suites.
They are now finished and up and running and selling.
PTO also has a tax loss to use up ITRO £14M.
This company old name INGENTA was valued over £139M in the dot com boom.
New directors took over 6 years ago, the results are for all to see.

harryr

17th Oct '13

October 16, 2013

By George Lossius, CEO of Publishing Technology

This past August, I headed east for the third year in a row to attend the Beijing International Book Fair, Asia’s flagship publishing industry event. When I was first invited in 2011 after launching our domestic partnership in China, I did not know what to expect. Now, in the span of two years it feels that the number of international delegates and exhibitors has grown in volume, but most obviously in size of presence and the Chinese market has gained new focus for publishers and industry providers well beyond the week of the Book Fair. This feeling was further emphasized when, a few weeks later, I also visited the first, and very successful, China Periodicals fair in Wuhan.

As publishers begin to enter into this market, I thought I would share some of my experience from our particular venture in China. Nearly three years ago, Publishing Technology established a local partnership and an office in Beijing, providing local businesses with content hosting platforms, enterprise management systems and foreign businesses with sales and marketing services to Chinese institutions. Through this work we forged a significant collaboration with CNPIEC, the China National Publications Import and Export Corporation, the largest government-approved content import and export group in China. As a result, we built the CNP eReading platform, which is helping publishers like Human Kinetics and the International Monetary Fund reach thousands of Chinese libraries and millions of researchers.

Though the Chinese market is considered challenging to break into by Western businesses, in reality this is changing, and changing rapidly. This evolution is driven by increased familiarity with written English by growing segment of the Chinese population, and a growing hunger for content from outside the country. At the same time, the Chinese government is becoming more heavily involved in the export of Chinese content to the world and is eager to match its economic success by extending its cultural influence. Much like the West, Chinese publishers are contemplating the digital future and heavily investing in their business infrastructure to prepare to meet ever-changing reader demands.

Amidst all this potential opportunity, one crucial difference to bear in mind is that the publishing industry in China is mainly state-owned and publishing professionals are actually state employees and are therefore highly motivated by government objectives. Chinese publishers focus on market demands, but equally, pay close attention to Beijing’s five-year plans. It is essential to learn what these overarching plans intend to achieve on a national level in order for publishers to understand the behavior of the local marketplace. In the coming year, in partnership with CNPIEC, we aim to make this easier by providing access to research information (in English and Mandarin) of the Governments’ objectives.

A complex yet exciting place to conduct business, China is a growth market with real potential for publishers if they are willing to explore it with an open mind and do their homework.

harryr

21st Oct '13

National digital library promotion launched17:03, December 16, 2010

A project to promote China's national digital library was launched in Beijing on Wednesday. It aims to ensure that every organization, every family and every person has their own digital library through new media, such as mobile phone, digital TV and internet.

With the national digital library as the core, this project will connect all libraries nationwide to form a single, massive digital library.

The construction of a national digital library has achieved preliminary results, according to Wei Dawei, deputy director of the National Library. As of the end of 2010, digital resources have reached 460 terabytes and the public can access 76 percent of records, which cover various historical periods at home and abroad.

By Liang Jun, People's Daily Online

Researching at the weekend I picked up on the above.

harryr

23rd Oct '13

The Times:

If London’s “hot money” is right, then Publishing Technology appears considerably more adept at furnishing the publishing industry with technol-ogy know-how than keeping the stock market appraised.
Those fast chaps who hunt lucrative takeovers are convinced that PTO — like many other companies, this one is known colloquially in the market by its ticker — has received not one, not two, but three separate approaches about a possible takeover and has not disclosed any of them.
The rules on disclosure could not be simpler. If takeover talks stay secret, fine. There is no need to say anything. However, if they leak, the target company is obligated to tell the Takeover Panel right away. It is the Panel’s job to make sure the market is properly informed when secret deals do not remain quite so secret, to prevent any false market in the shares when some become privy to sensitive information unavailable to all. No distinction is made between formal and informal approaches.
Rumblings about takeover app-roaches to PTO have done the rounds since about mid-August, when the shares were changing hands for roughly 260p. Yesterday, they rose a further 1½p to 547½p, within touching distance of their best.
Another rule that the Panel is supposed to enforce states that the target company must make contact if its share price rises by a meagre 10 per cent from its nadir since talks started. Whether the Panel then demands disclosure is a subjective judgment. It can hand the target company a pass for any number of reasons. It is perfectly possible that just such a pass has been handed to PTO.
Cold comfort to frustrated professional investors, who believe that the latest approach, reckoned to have been from Reuters, the financial information provider, was pitched north of £10, valuing the company at more than £80? million. China National Publications Import and Export (Group) Corporation was said to have been behind an earlier approach at a lower price still substantially above where shares currently trade.
If this manner of premium sounds far-fetched, then speculators explain it like this. PTO, so the story runs, is sitting on two thumping new contracts, which its chairman, Martyn Rose, thinks are game-changers that should re-rate the shares to somewhere near £10 anyway. Little incentive, then, to sell the business for that sort of price. Yesterday, PTO did not return a call about the matter.

harryr

4th Nov '13

PTO stands in at £48M.[£5.75p per share]
The Times above quotes north of £10.00 a share.
My own research points to a great deal more than that;
Rightmove shares traded at just £2.00 just 4 short years ago, [£24.00]
Asos shares traded at 5p 9 years ago [£54.00]
If Rightmove had been sold at £6.00, or Asos at £1.00 the buyers would have done a stonking deal.
Any bidder may find they have to pay 2 /2.5/ or even 3 times the stock price to win over the directors in my view.

lightningtiger

4th Nov '13

Still on my hit list, good potential with China, but not a buy from me at the moment.

harryr

5th Nov '13

Investors might like to read this;
The "easy to read platform(CNPeReading] mentioned below is being run on PTO"S Pub2 web software .
My take on the report is clear.
The Chinese government through its NO1 state publisher has plans to grow the platform into the next Apple/Amazon.
In doing so it will give China and its people a huge edge and lift growth.
The Chinese five year plan has just two years left to run
They [unlike the west] tend to get the job done

Zhangji Chen: China needs its own "Amazon, Apple and Google."
Release date :2013 -09-10 Author: Wangzhi Yan Source: Xinhua

Twentieth Beijing International Book Fair (hereinafter referred to as Beijing Figure Expo) recently concluded a five-day exhibition, which attracted 76 countries and regions, more than 2,000 Chinese and foreign publishing unit boutique showcase 200,000 kinds of books. Located in the copyright trade expo in Beijing diagram final agreement 3667, an increase of 11.2% over last year. Among them, the output reached agreement 2091, the introduction of agreements reached 1576, the introduction of the output ratio of 1:1.33.

After 20 years of accumulation, Beijing Figure Expo has become an important platform for showcasing Chinese culture and the Chinese publishing an important channel to go out. Ben Wang reporter on Figure Expo recent trends and characteristics, etc. Figure Expo interview with Beijing Organizing Committee Secretary-General, China Book Import and Export (Group) Corporation, Deputy General Manager Zhangji Chen.

Five Trends International Publishing was

Digital publishing has become a broad consensus

This year's copyright trade data expected fairly basic and Zhangji Chen, he thinks this year's exhibitors structural characteristics determine the trade there have been some new changes. Digital Publishing exhibitors increased year by year so that digital copyright trading is more active than in previous years. And in Asia, Africa, Southeast Asian countries and Western countries small and medium sized publishers actively participating, directly contributing to the copyright of their Chinese books purchased in volume.

Zhangji Chen said that as the country "going out" strategy, the publishing industry but also around the country's cultural diplomacy Diplomacy for service, Chinese culture in the world growing influence, publishers need to introduce China to meet local market theme books needs.

Book Fair has always been a barometer of the publishing industry and the observatory, talked about recent trends in the international publishing industry to reflect on at the Book Fair, Zhangji Chen summed up five o'clock, the first is the "digital publishing has become a broad consensus that it is now publishing industry and the future. "

Second, the rapid rise of China's publishing industry to the international attention, China increasingly popular subject of books, foreign publishers not only want to buy more Chinese copyright, but also hope that they can enter the Chinese market to develop publishing products.

Capital and industrial integration is accelerating, acquisitions, mergers, joint is a clear trend, such as Langdon and penguins merger, the international publishing industry giants through mergers and acquisitions to create a more professional publishing group, try to turn the publication do finer.

Digital age is still "content is king"

Publishers do not be so impetuous era

Zhangji Chen talked about focusing on digital publishing view. Currently the world's top ten publishers, the digital publishing accounted for its 41%, and some publishing groups such as Elsevier Science and Technology Publishing Group journals digitized more than 90%, and the developed countries in Europe and America after a decade of digital publishing digital resources accumulation and development, its business model, the reader consumption habits and other ripe. "But the country still needs further cultivation, transformation and development", Zhangji Chen said.

Turning the Digital Age "channel is king" or "content is king", the Zhangji Chen firmly believes that "the digital age is still the content is king."

China needs its own "Amazon, Apple and Google."

The digital age, the traditional publishing industry is facing the impact of restructuring, also faces opportunities. In this figure during the fair, China Book Import and Export (Group) Corporation to build an international trading and services platform digital resources - easy to read through (CNPeReading) was officially launched. According to reports, this is the figure the company since last year began implementing the "global digital resource aggregation and service engineering" initial results.

Zhangji Chen with "figures wholesalers" Defining the role of the platform, "the digital age, although age of disintermediation, the reason is true, but we are increasingly believe that the digital age is still required in the disk supplier. Every reader to face Massive digital resources, there are both hard to find, difficult to use to save, to meet the diverse needs of difficult issues such as personality, particularly the use of foreign resources subject to various restrictions. massive resources if a platform can gather together, allowing readers to find a one-stop, purchase, acquire, and this is an important value in the disk vendors. "

Zhangji Chen introduced in Figure 60 with extensive customer resources accumulated over the years, international import and export channels and service capabilities, "easy to read through" at home and abroad more than 130 ten thousand kinds of aggregated digital resources, more than 6000 kinds of journals. Achieve a book, periodicals, library, multilingual, one domestic and external resources, including 20,000 species of international OA resources for consumers free of charge. Platform for libraries, universities, research institutions, public reading to provide professional, personalized, all media resources services. Launch day, more than 200 librarians and approved to attend, so Zhangji Chen confident on this platform.

In Zhangji Chen seems "easy read through" the birth of the platform has multiple meanings.

Without a sustainable, long-term win-win business model tied China's digital publishing industry. Digital publishing more than 1,900 last year, although there are millions of value, but it is the animation, games, ring tones, MMS, mobile newspapers are enumerated, and really get very little by the publishing group. "Building an upstream Press, downstream consumers win-win business model is easy to read through the obligations" Zhangji Chen said.

"Easy to read through" the ideal blueprint sketched - domestic digital resources either through platform output to the international market, the domestic market but also in the way transfer to the libraries, universities, research institutions, enterprises, individuals, electricity providers and so on. Traditional publishing houses have a good income will vigorously develop digital publishing, end users and develop a good spending habits. Zhangji Chen that must be addressed to achieve these two problems, one needs to be adequate copyright protection, effective management, and the second is to allow readers to get a good experience.

"Easy to read through it can be said that our own Amazon, it will make China's digital resources can enter the international digital main channel, to promote Chinese publications to the world, in accordance with international standards, to enhance China pricing publications in international transactions level of income "Zhangji Chen have high expectations. They pass through and see the difference lies in the Amazon, the Amazon is a comprehensive B2C electronic business, mass consumption read some more. Easily understood through reading key service targets institutional or professional users, their technology, medicine, education and other aspects of professional needs more resources. But also easy to read through the Amazon, Jingdong, Dangdang and other platforms to provide digital resources.

Zhangji Chen also told reporters, easy to read through the deeper meaning lies in "speaking from the national strategic level, it is built to be a national, authoritative digital content platform, to ensure the country's right to speak has a crucial role, we want to There are China's 'Amazon, Apple and Google', which for cultural prosperity and enhance the power of the international spread of Chinese culture is critical. "

harryr

28th Nov '13

WESTHOUSE: 28/11/13

Publishing Technology has issued a trading update

In today’s trading update Publishing Technology (PT) has outlined that it expects results for the year to December 2013 to be below market expectations, due to a combination of delays in completing a number of large projects and accelerated R&D investment. As a result, profits for FY2013 are expected to be similar to FY2012.

As management’s expectations for FY2014 remain unchanged we are revising our FY2013 estimates for adj. PBT and adj. EPS to £0.6m from £1.3m previously) and 7.6p (from 14.9p previously). We leave our FY2014 forecasts for adj. PBT and adj. EPS of £1.8m and 21.4p unchanged.

Today’s update signals that China is performing well, with the JV on track to deliver an operating profit in this financial year, and it is benefitting from a growing pipeline of opportunities.

Management have also taken the opportunity today to confirm that it has not received an approach for, or held discussions regarding a takeover of, the company.

While today’s trading update may disappoint some, accelerated R&D should aid market adoption of advance, and does not negatively impact the fundamental attractions of PT. Our target price of 560p remains based on our FY2014 forecasts, and these are unchanged. We would view any share price weakness as an opportunity to add to holdings.

djpreston

9th Dec '13

No comment on the price now its halved since the warning?

harryr

10th Dec '13

Halved after a rise of 1,400% since April last year. Still up a cool 700%.
Westhouse = Add rating on the stock.
PTO "S profits are due to rise over 180% in the next 12 months. 600k to £1.8M.
The company has had a set back for sure ,but with strong growing, high margin, recurring revenues the share price downturn may be short lived.
Lower R and D and new income streams from Advance and Pub2Web should do the trick.

harryr

24th Jan '14

The Chinese Joint Venture: PTO and CNPIEC, looks to be steaming ahead.
The 3 news items are worth a read.
None come from the company, but they do shed light on just how fast the chinese digital platform is growing.
.
.
News item 1/

RosettaBooks and China National Publications Import & Export (Group) Corporation to distribute its catalog to institutions in China
New York, NY December 16, 2013: China National Publications Import and Export (Group) Corporation (“CNPIEC”) and RosettaBooks LLC announced an exclusive partnership in which CNPIEC will distribute the RosettaBooks English-language eBooks catalog to library, school, and other institutional accounts in China.

CNPIEC is China’s largest importer of publications in worldwide languages. CNPIEC plans to distribute over 1,000,000 titles through its digital platform for thousands of publishers throughout the world.

RosettaBooks is the leading independent eBook publisher in the United States.

All RosettaBooks titles available for distribution in China (95% of the full catalog) are part of this partnership.

For the first time, titles such as Slaughterhouse-Five and 20 other works of Kurt Vonnegut, 2001: A Space Odyssey and 35 works of Arthur C. Clarke, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey, a five-title series from Mayo Clinic, and an 11-title series from Harvard Health Publications will be available throughout China. CNPIEC will offer these titles according to its institutional business model, which permits the buyer an unlimited number of users of each file. Pricing reflects the Chinese publishing model and market.

“The market in China for prominent titles in English is one of the most exciting digital markets in the world. The Chinese eBook market today is 90% institutional. We are honored to partner with CNPIEC, the leader in institutional eBook marketing in China,” said Arthur Klebanoff, CEO of RosettaBooks.

About China National Publications Import& Export(Group) Corporation: China National Publications Import & Export (Group) Corporation (CNPIEC) is a large state-owned culture enterprise founded in 1949, the same year as the founding of the People’s Republic of China. In April 2002 it was incorporated into China Publishing Group Corporation as a member company. It has formed its industrial structure pattern in fields of import of publications, export of publications, domestic and oversea exhibitions, oversea publishing, oversea outlets and other international operations. CNPIEC is the largest and most competitive import and export enterprise of the Chinese publishing industry with total assets of 3 billion yuan, and 42 branches at home and abroad.

News item 2/
OverDrive to provide digital content to Chinese libraries and retailers
.
Recently OverDrive CEO Steve Potash was in Asia for a number of events including the IFLA annual conference as well as the Beijing International Book Fair (BIBF). During BIBF the China National Publications Import & Export Corporation (CNPIEC) and OverDrive signed an E-Publications Import License Agreement, in an official signing ceremony. With this agreement in place, OverDrive can now take steps towards making OverDrive’s catalog of digital content available in China to libraries and retailers.

CNPIEC is the largest importer of publications in China with domestic customers of over 10,000 libraries and institutions. OverDrive’s entry into China will provide an additional market for OverDrive’s publisher partners, who can rely on the trusted relationship with OverDrive as their digital distribution partner.

OverDrive will be working with Chinese libraries, schools, universities and retailers in China to establish digital library lending platforms, and provide the best services and content catalog. OverDrive is excited to continue to provide unrivaled compatibility and selection to library patrons around the world.

News item 3/.
17/01/14

At the Digital Book World Conference, several publishers including Sourcebook’s Dominique Raccha and Simon & Schuster’s Carolyn Reidy both agreed the rate of change is not slowing down even with the information that e-book sales have slowed.
A big part of that may have to do with information released this week from OverDrive, a distributor of e-books, digital audiobooks, music and video to libraries.
Consider this: it took 10 years for OverDrive to reach its first 100 million digital checkouts – a time span between 2003-2012.
The next 100 million checkouts all happened in 2013.
People borrowed more than 102 digital titles through OverDrive in 2013, up 44 percent from last year. E-books alone account for 79 million checkouts (46 percent increase) and audiobook checkouts accounted for 22.9 million checkouts (37 percent increase).
Readers are finding ways to get books digitally, even if they aren’t always buying, which seems to be suggested by OverDrive’s data.
One of the biggest factors was the increase of mobile use. OverDrive’s mobile platform accounted for nearly half of all checkouts and two-thirds of all traffic.
“This past year was a breakthrough year for OverDrive,” said Shannon Lichty, Director of Partner Services at OverDrive in a release. “Through innovation and exemplary partner performance, digital reading is now more accessible and more prolific than ever. We are looking forward to additional enhancements in 2014 to create the ultimate streamlined experience and enhanced interactivity for users.”
Six of OverDrive’s standalone libraries had more than one million digital checkouts from their individual collections including two in Washington state, New York Public Library, and Toronto Public Library.
In addition, OverDrive increased its catalog to 1.8 million digital titles, which includes more than 5,000 publishers.
Think about it again: more than 100 million digital checkouts in 2013, the same year e-book sales weren’t as robust in previous years. Some have suggested the slowdown in e-book sales means that people are reading less digital titles. But with this new bit of information perhaps it means they are just finding different outlets to get their books.

END.

harryr

3rd Mar '14

Results issued today along with a brokers upgrade;
In profit to the tune of £700,000 with no tax to pay for years.
Full order book,Pub2Web and Advance suites finished and selling well.
Chinese J/V in profit after just two years and new orders won.

Westhouse have a £5.60p price target just short of 100% upside from todays market open.

harryr

11th Apr '14

Contract news this morning.
The wins are for PTO'S new Advance software suite.
Advance was designed to produce year in year out recurring revenues for PTO.
VIista PTO' S 20 year old software is still producing very high margins and profits.

harryr

13th Apr '14

The report and accounts 2013 do not give much insight into what the company is doing in China.
Researching the W.W.W I came across this.
I had no idea just how large these projects are, nor the market share of China Law Press. 80%
If this is what Helen has achieved in just over two years it bodes well for the next ten.

Helen Sun: CEO China

Beijing Ingenta Digital Publishing Technology Limited (China Office, Publishing Technology Plc)

September 2011 – Present (2 years 8 months)

Established the market position and business operation of Publishing Technology in China and implemented the global strategies of the group as the biggest publishing technology and service provider. The stock price of the parent company increased over 500% in one year with the great prospects brought by the development in China.
In charge of the daily operation of the Chinese company and met the sales targets and budgets in three business directions. The business broke even in the first year and the revenue grew over one million pounds in the second year.
Negotiated joint ventures and other partnerships with major publishers in China to expand the business scale.
Supported the negotiation of major deals of Publishing Technology plc with American and European publishers
Represented the group in public events including professional forums, academic conferences, government affairs and commercial meetings.
Strong relationship building with GAPP, institutions, libraries and professional societies.
Technical projects:
1. CNPeReading: the largest digital publication import and export platform built for China National Publication Import and Export Group
2. ERP system for China Law Press: one of the largest professional publishing companies in China holding 80% of the legal publishing market. The system covers editorial, production and distribution of the business.
3. Internal management system (BMEP) for the Book and Serials Department of CNPIEC
4. Export management system for CNPIEC
5. The reading platform for Qingdao Education Bureau
6. The data API development for 2013 Ministry of Science project
7. GAPP joint digital publishing technology project - 15 publishing companies contracted together for online publication platforms
8. Guangxi online agriculture video information platform
Other projects:
Digital Life Exhibition 2012
Ingentaconnect service packages to Chinese journal publishers

fek47

14th Apr '14

I don't understand the point of this thread with one contributor only?

harryr

20th Apr '14

Fek47,great to see you here.

Publishing Technology China wins International Book Industry Technology Supplier Award at London Book Fair.

harryr

25th Apr '14

The tantalizing English language eBook opportunity in China

According to GoodEReader, China is the second largest eBook market in the world, with 52 percent growth in calendar 2012. As of October 2013, there were 500 million Internet users and 1.22 billion mobile phone users in China, as noted by China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

Those marketing direct to the Chinese consumer are principally offering eBooks in the Chinese language. The market is fragmented, with revenues divided among online retailers, telecom operators, search engines (e.g., Baidu), hardware manufacturers (e.g., Bambook), and social media networks.

Major international etailers like Kindle, iBookstore and Kobo are trying to become significant factors in China with stores emphasizing Chinese-language titles.

But what of the opportunity to distribute English-language trade eBooks in China? (Reference and scientific titles are a separate discussion).

In this market, the US publisher needs an effective channel of distribution and also needs a reliable sales and marketing partner to help promote the titles.

The most quickly developing market for English-language trade eBooks in China is the B2B market focused on libraries, schools and other institutions. Today’s opportunity for trade English-language title sales in China is 90 percent B2B and 10 percent direct to the consumer.

How is that B2B market best pursued? China National Publications Import & Export (Group) Corporation or “CNPIEC” (www.cnpeak.com) is an important member company of China Publishing Group. CNPIEC has been the leader in importing and exporting printed books to China for some time. CNPIEC recently made a major commitment to build and market an eBook publishing platform for both Chinese and other than Chinese language titles to the institutional market in China. That platform is now active, with a short-term goal of offering over 1,000,000 titles.

In China, institutional purchasers acquire the file forever and have the right to use it simultaneously with multiple users. Obviously, this term of use limits sales to any one customer and calls for pricing that reflects the market and the terms of use. The interesting question is, how broad will the customer base be for high quality titles?

RosettaBooks just announced a venture with CNPIEC through which RosettaBooks will make all of its titles available for sale in China through CNPIEC’s B2B program. To maximize the impact of the launch, RosettaBooks is sending its head of international licensing, Jonathan Ward (who is fluent in Mandarin) to be based in Beijing.

We are cognizant of the digital piracy problem. The digital B2B platform built by CNPIEC is structured to be copyright compliant. Rosetta and thousands of publishers around the world will be exploring the implications of a robust B2B market in China.

harryr

1st May '14

UNESCO reports on reading in the mobile era

Mobile phones have a powerful role to play in advancing literacy and nurturing a culture of reading in the developing world, according to a new report published last week by UNESCO. The Reading in the Mobile Era report is the most extensive survey of digital reading habits yet published outside of the developed world. It polled 4000 consumers across seven countries and paints a detailed picture of who reads what and why on their mobile phones, before going on to make several recommendations as to how these promising early developments could be turned into coherent strategies designed to get more people reading.

In the introduction to the report, UNESCO justifies its decision to pin the future of literacy on the basis that it’s the most ubiquitous communications technology of all time. According to United Nations data it cites, in a world of 7 billion people an estimated 6 billion now have access to a mobile phone – even though only 4.5 billion have access to a toilet. Its very ubiquity means that the mobile phone is available in environments where books are scarce. Moreover, as smartphones make up an ever growing proportion of those mobile phones, and even simpler ‘feature’ phones are capable of accessing the web and other web services, these technologies are gradually driving a change in the way we communicate with one another. This change has had the unintended benefit of making reading a more important and desirable skill. As The Guardian said in its own write-up of this report ‘with very little fanfare, the dominant mode of expression in much of the western world has switch from speech to text; as that switch moves to developing countries, it can only be a good thing for literacy’.

UNESCO’s report, which was compiled in collaboration with Nokia and a web-based reading platform called Worldreader, tracks this transition in Ethiopia, Ghana, India, Kenya, Nigeria, Pakistan and Zimbabwe and yielded some encouraging results. For example, one of its key findings was that while women were still substantially under-represented in terms of mobile phone ownership (21% less likely than a man to own a phone in low to middle income countries, according to GSMA data), those that did own or use mobile phones were significantly more likely to use them for reading long-form text. While the average male user spent 33 minutes a month reading on their mobile phone, the average female user spent 207 minutes on mobile reading. Women did 66% of the all of the reading that took place during the three months of the study, despite only making up 23% of the total readers.

Another area where digital reading habits in the developing world appear to track those in the developed was convenience. 67% of people participating in the study said they chose to read on their phone because it was a device they always kept with them, and thus more accessible than paper books. It also appeared that giving people the ability to read on a phone had a measurable positive effect on their attitude to reading. 66% of participants who said they liked reading before they started the study reported that they liked to read even more now they could do it on their phones. An even more remarkable change took place in the attitudes of people who, on starting the study, claimed they didn’t like reading. 62% of these participants said that having the ability to read using their phone made them like the activity

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