Comparing with 2016 when reading app market was dominated by iReader, QQ Reader and Shuqi Novels, the market was led by only two players, iReader and QQ Reader, in 2017, along with the rapid rise of Kuaikan Comic.

A Gradually Saturated Market

The MAU of Chinese reading apps arrived at 253 million in Dec. 2017, 13.93 million more than that at beginning of the year. With gradually falling YoY growth, this industry was reaching a steady state. Influenced by summer holiday and popular TV dramas, we even saw negative growth in July.

Increasing Time Spent

As people were increasingly aware of copyright and paying for knowledge, the total time spent of reading apps increased by 16.6% in 2017 and daily time spent per user also rose 9.6% to 73.4 minutes in Dec.

Most Users Only Installed One Reading App

Same as last year, more than half of users only installed one reading app, but those who installed two or more apps had larger share.

Stable MAU of Top Apps

iReader’s MAU approached 60 million in Dec. 2017, 3% less than that in 2016, and the active degree of its users was also lower than its rivals. With more popular authors and abundant content, Shuqi Novels and Baidu Reader realized some increase in active degree. Supported by ACGN group, Kuaikan Comic also had good performance in user base expansion.

APP + Mobile Web Satisfied Various Needs

Taking QQ Reader as an example, its cross-platform monthly users exceeded 50 million during 2017 summer holiday and is expected to see further increase as there are more and more traffic entrance.

Shuqi Novels and QQ Reader Had the Strongest User Stickiness

Benefiting from various IP content, timely update and individualized recommendation, Shuqi Novels and QQ Reader gained strong user stickiness.

Varied Performance in 30-day Retention Rate

As the industry pattern was getting stable and competition kept intensifying, players all focused on content and users maintenance. Baidu Reader and Shuqi Novels realized impressive YoY growth of 30-day retention rate, while QQ Reader and Kuaikan Comic’s performance was not so satisfying.

High User Loyalty of Major Apps

90% of iReader’s users were exclusive, and the share of QQ Reader and Shuqi Novels’ exclusive users were also above 80%, showing high user loyalty.

More Male Paying Readers

Comparing with the whole online reading market, paying readers group had higher proportion of males.

Young People Were More Likely to Pay

Readers under 30 were the main payers group, but paying readers above 30 years old obviously had higher proportion than the whole industry.

More Paying Readers in Lower Tier Cities

The distribution of paying readers in cities of different tiers were generally the same as that of all reading app users, although there were a little more paying readers in third and fourth tier cities.

Most Users Paid Less Than Twenty Yuan A Month

As for the amount of payment, 80% of users would pay less than 20 Yuan a month.

Subjects of Novels Paid by Users

Women would like to pay for love novels and suspense novels, while men were interested in kung fu novels and military novels. Urban fictions were attractive to both women and men, although women loved them more.

People Would Like to Pay for Novel IP-derived Movie and TV Drama

For various IP-derived products, people were most likely to pay for movies and TV dramas, followed by animations, while for stage play and theme shop which were relatively expensive, people showed less interest.