In December 2010, China Education Publishing & Media Group (China Education) was formed as a strategic merger to reshape educational publishing. The company includes five subsidiaries: Higher Education Press (HEP), PEP (Peoples's Education Press), LCP (Language & Culture Press), CEPIEC (China Educational Publication Import & Export Corporation) and China Educational Instrument & Equipment Corp. According to Li Pengyi, General manager of the new group, it plans to capitalize on the rapid development and growing international dimension of Chinese educational publishing, improve the group’s stock listing, and develop digital strategies.

With an annual output of 40,000 publications including books, audio, and digital reaching 2,000 primary and secondary schools across the country, China Education is the market leader in China’s publishing industry.

China Education includes the China Teaching Equipment Corporation, a state-owned company specializing in research equipment, and the Educational Publications Import & Export Corporation, which imports and exports newspapers, books, journals, audio and video products. A detailed organigram and company structure of China Education in English is available on the company website.

Analysis & Key Developments

Financial

Current financial figures since 2012 were audited in anticipation of a planned IPO, however the IPO has not taken place to date. The latest figures were made available for this Ranking. Revenues for 2014 were 6.87 billion CNY, down from 6.98 billion CNY in 2013.

International

China Education’s International partners include Pearson, Cengage Learning, McGraw-Hill Education, Wiley, Wolters Kluwer, Cambridge University Press, Oxford University Press, Langenscheidt, Pearson, and Springer.

Higher Education Press announced a cooperation agreement with Dutch journal publisher Brill.

In Asia, China Education began a partnership with Nhan Tri Viet of Vietnam and extended an agreement with the Thai Ministry of Education.

HEP sold 179 titles to publishers in Europe and the Americas in 2010, making it the leader in China in copyright exports.

Note: For the Global Ranking 2014, financial figures for the years 2012 and 2010 have been re-stated, as more accurate and more authoritative information has become available.

Click here to return to the full listing of the world's largest publishers.