By Keen Zhang & Chen Xia

Penguin Group has become the first international publisher to sign an e-book distribution agreement to make e-book titles in English available in China, the head of the group said at the London Book Fair on Tuesday.

"We are excited to be signing this landmark agreement with Founder Apabi," said John Makinson, chairman and CEO of the Penguin Group. "For Penguin, both the Chinese market and the digital arena represent areas of great opportunity and future growth."

Penguin Group is the first international publishing company to sign a distribution agreement to make its front and backlist English titles available in e-book form to readers in China.

Penguin e-book titles from the UK and Dorling Kindersley, which currently number more than 2,000, will be made available in Apabi's Chinese e-book (CEB) format.

"In Apabi we believe we have found the right partner to develop our e-book offering. We look forward to using our relationship with Apabi as a springboard for a range of digital projects over the coming years," Makinson added.

Starting in May 2009, titles will be available in English for download to Chinese readers, including a wide range of fiction, nonfiction, classics, children's, lifestyle, and travel books.

"Penguin is a world-leading publisher of consumer books. It is also the most popular publishing brand among readers," said Fang Zhonghua, senior vice president of Beijing-based Founder Apabi Group. "It is our pleasure to work with Penguin to promote the Chinese e-book market, which boasts the world's largest number of Internet users."

But Founder officials told China.org.cn that they will not reveal details until May.

Currently, the e-book market in China is composed mainly of library books and academic works. Although consumer books make up only a tiny market share, they have developed rapidly in recent years. At present, Founder Apabi holds about 80 percent of the Chinese e-book market. Its database contains more than 500,000 e-book titles from some 500 Chinese publishers. According to estimates, by 2008 the total value of the Chinese e-book market had grown to 200 million yuan.

On April 20, the 38th London Book Fair opened officially in the Earls Court Exhibition Center. Under the impact of the global financial crisis, the number of participants was down by 2 percent compared with 2008. However, the fair still managed to attract more than 1,600 participants from 54 countries and regions. A delegation of 27 publishers and book trading corporations from China took part in the fair.

This year's book fair has a unique new feature – a digital zone and theatre. With the growing popularity of the Internet and mobile phones, e-books are becoming the new publishing phenomenon. In spite of one of the most challenging retail environments in recent times, John Makinson told reporters on Tuesday that its e-book sales for the first three months of the year in the US were about seven times the level of the previous year.

"The underlying growth in e-book sales is very significant in the US and we expect over time that in the international markets that we are here to talk about (Britain, China, India, South Africa and Australia) it will be very significant too," Makinson said.

Sales of e-books by Penguin Group (USA) have surged as the company has invested in making 6,400 books available in the United States and a total of 8,500 e-books across the Group on a variety of electronic reading devices. It has also published exclusive new content in e-book form. Penguin saw its e-book sales in the US jump close to 500 percent over 2007.

Chinese e-book market leaps in 2008

According to the April 21 issue of China Book Business Report, by December 31, 2008, China had 810,000 e-book titles, growing by 150,000, or over 22 percent, against 2007. The development of e-books is maintaining a strong momentum. In 2008, the total number of e-books traded in China was 49.5 million copies, increasing year-on-year by 15 percent; the sales revenue of e-books was 226.3 million yuan, increasing year-on-year by 34 percent. In sharp comparison with the stagnant development of hard-copy books, e-books are growing rapidly in variety, numbers, and sales value.