Zhejiang Publishing United Group is a state-owned publishing group under the Zhejiang Provincial Government, established in 2000. The group is focused on publishing and distribution of books, periodicals, audio-video products and electronic as well as multimedia publications and other goods, plus investment and other services related to the publishing industry. The Group consists of more than 120 wholly owned and controlled corporate units, and employs a total staff of over 8,000.

The Group’s publishing business includes eleven publishers: Zhejiang People’s Publishing House, People's Fine Arts, Science and Technology, Literature & Art, Juvenile and Children’s, Education, Ancient Books, Photographic Press, Electronic & Audio-Video Publishing House, General Periodical Publishing House, and Zhejiang Publishing Group Digital Media Co., Ltd.

The distribution business is operated by Zhejiang Xinhua Bookstore Group Co., Ltd., which also operates the Bookuu bookstore chain (100 locations).

In 2015, Zhejiang Publishing United Group published 10,036 books, including 4,747 new titles, and its annual retail sales value of books accounted for 2.24% of the total national book retail. The publisher’s children's books accounted for 6.17% of total national retail for the children’s market.

Zhejiang Publishing United Group is included in this ranking for the first time in 2016, after respective detailed and authoritative information was made available by the group through cooperation with the Chinese independent publishing industry news service BookDao.

Analysis & Key Developments

Financial

In fiscal year 2015, Zhejiang Publishing United Group's total revenue reached 10.49 billion RMB, an increase of 16.48% over 2014. The group’s net profit of 1.01 billion RMB marked an increase of 13.93% over the previous year. Publishing revenues were 8.85 billion RMB, with a net publishing profit of 1 billion RMB.

International

Zhejian Publishing set up Horizon Oriental Edition for its international publishing business. Zhejian also has an office in Tokyo. In 2015, Zhejiang Juvenile and Children's Publishing House invested 2 million USD in the 100% acquisition of Australia New Frontier Publishing. This was the first instance of an overseas acquisition by a Chinese children's book publisher. The Bookuu bookstore chain established four simplified Chinese bookstores in Taiwan China, and more shops are in preparation in Russia, Malaysia, Japan and Korea.

Digital

The Group's digital publishing business is mainly operated by its dedicated digital division. In 2015, the company reported 15.57 million RMB in revenue from a mobile digital reading platform ranked as number one among mobile reading services in China. At BookExpo America 2015, the company was awarded the Blue Sky Award by OverDrive, the US digital library service. In 2015, Zhejiang Education Publishing House established an online education service platform for an expected 200,000 users.

Bestsellers

According to OpenBook statistics, Zhejiang Publishing had eleven titles included in the Top 100 bestsellers in 2015 from brick and mortar bookstores, with 36 overall bestselling children’s books, eleven social science titles, and two literature and art books. A total of more than 25 million copies of the Animal Fiction Master Shen Shixi’s Collection have been sold, as well as over 10 million copies of Charles IX and over 1.5 million copies of Big Data.

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