Major publishers in Taiwan and Japan said Saturday they were optimistic about the development of the e-book market and will continue their cooperation plans to make inroads into the vast market in China, but noted that the performance of the e-book industry in Taiwan has been lackluster.

IBNA: According to CNA, although the manufacturers of e-reading devices and telecommunication services providers in Taiwan have been actively promoting e-books over the past years, most publishers in the country are still taking a wait-and-see attitude, said Ho Fei-peng, CEO of the largest publishing business in Taiwan Cite Publishing Group, at a Taipei International Book Exhibition forum.

Taiwan's e-book market has not been as vibrant as Japan's, he said at the forum, which was also attended by Chang Jung-kuei, general manager of the Taipei-based Spring House Entertainment Tech Inc., and Yoshinobu Noma, president of Japan's biggest publishing company Kodansha Ltd.

For example, e-books accounted for just 2 percent of Cite's annual sales volume, Ho said.

"Nonetheless, I believe that figure was one of the highest among the industry competitors in Taiwan," he said.

Ho said the slow growth of the e-reading market in Taiwan can be attributed to several factors, including difficulties in acquiring the copyrights for e-books, the complex procedure for producing e-books, and the reading habits of local consumers.

In Taiwan, tablet computers are mostly used for computer games rather than for
Chang, who heads the online Hami joint venture with Chunghwa Telecom Co., said the e-book market in Taiwan is still underdeveloped despite the fact that Hami has been selling e-books since 2009.
Japan, 500,000 copies of the Jobs e-book version and 1.02 million printed copies have been sold to date, according to Noma.

Ho and Noma said their companies, which formed a joint venture last September to make inroads into the Chinese e-book market, will continue working together to explore the Chinese-languag.

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