This year’s Beijing International Book Fair (BIBF), which began its five-day run today, is set to see record international participation with 1,700 exhibitors from 80 countries and regions, marking a 13% increase over 2024. First-time participants include Bangladesh, Chile, Cyprus, Ethiopia, Kenya, and Oman. The guest of honor is Malaysia, which commemorated the 50th anniversary of its diplomatic ties with China last year.
Prior to the official launch of BIBF, a number of events took place including the inaugural STM APAC Conference, under the theme of “Open Driven by Innovation.” This event marked the STM Association’s first dedicated Asia Pacific forum on open science and was all about empowering high-quality development of academic publishing and foster international collaboration. Keynote speakers included STM CEO Caroline Sutton and Yang Wei, academician at the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
The PubTech Conference, held on June 16, returned for its third edition this year. Under the theme “Publishing’s Future Empowered by Technology,” talks revolved around the myriad ways advanced technologies are driving transformative changes in publishing and copyright protection.
On the trade side, the nearly 1,200-square-meter Art Book Pavilion saw big crowds, attracted by blockbuster exhibitions in partnership with Thames & Hudson (“David Hockney: A Visual Journey”), Princeton University Press (“Visualizing Dunhuang: The Lo Archive”), and Penguin Random House (“Penguin Archive: 90th Anniversary”).
Book sales buoyant
According to OpenBook, the Beijing-based clearinghouse for publishing statistics, the Chinese retail book market grew 10.7% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2025. The overall growth in the Chinese book market is still led by titles featured on such short-video e-commerce channels as Douyin (or TikTok as it is known internationally) and Xiaohongshu (or RedNote).
In 2024, the market was valued at ¥112.9 billion ($15.72 billion). “Last year, 1.92 million new titles were published, marking the highest annual total in nearly a decade,” said Lin Liying, president of China National Publications Import & Export Co., which organizes BIBF. Lin added that key growth areas include education, wellness, and AI-driven content, noting that “BIBF supports this growth by providing exhibitors and visitors with data-driven insights, networking opportunities, and innovative product showcases—all to help publishers navigate evolving reader interests and technological trends.”
The new Digital Publishing Pavilion, for instance, is about “throwing the spotlight on online literature, online gaming, and AI-powered publishing tools, alongside a special zone on Web literature to bring China’s vast online novel ecosystem to the global stage,” said Lin. “With smarter venue design, richer professional services, and more interactive events, BIBF 2025 is committed to deepening cultural exchanges, inspiring new publishing models, and creating a truly global cultural gala for exhibitors and visitors alike.”
Also making its debut this year is the Academic Digital Publishing Hub, a dedicated space for in-depth exchanges on digital content and technological solutions. This is as much about the rising e-resource acquisition budgets from Chinese university libraries as it is about the fast-growing digital revenues at major academic publishers. This year, representatives from more than 200 global libraries and research institutions attended the meeting to discuss growing digital demands in academic publishing, research information services, and library resource development, and to review cooperation opportunities.
For novelist and screenwriter Liu Zhenyun, who has been the BIBF Reading Ambassador since 2017, the reading habit remains strong. “I don’t think there is a conflict between books/reading and mobile phones, the Internet, and streaming media,” Liu said. “In China, platforms such as Douyin and Xiaohongshu are very popular. My Douyin videos have over 100 million views and many readers actually discover my books through short videos and then go on to purchase them. So I don’t see books and short-video platforms as mutually exclusive; they may, in fact, support each other.”
BIBF, added Liu, is now the second-largest book fair in the world. “Its guiding principle of ‘go out, bring in’ offers a platform for Chinese authors to go global and for foreign authors to enter the Chinese market," said Liu. “As its reading ambassador, I’m delighted to be a part of this.”
Major events for content creators and publishers to meet and exchange ideas are scheduled during the first three days of the fair, which are dedicated to professional visitors. These include the 3rd Beijing International Art Publishing Forum (with speakers such as Daniel Watts of Thames & Hudson and Jacks Thomas of Bologna BookPlus), BIBF International Publishing Forum, and BIBF World Children’s Book Forum. Melissa Fleming, the Under-Secretary-General for Global Communications at the United Nations who delivered the keynote at the International Publishers Association’s International Publishers Conference last year, is also scheduled to speak on two separate forums.
