[Feature: New Theory of Reading] <Scenes of Reading> The Present and Future of E-books / Yasuko Matsui

2020/05/11

Recently, while riding the train, I have noticed that I almost never see anyone reading a paper newspaper anymore. In the past, even during the crowded morning commute, I would see people skillfully folding large newspapers while reading articles, but that is now becoming a scene of the past. Instead, what many people are staring intently at are smartphone screens. If you take a quick peek, you will see a wide variety of content, not just social media, but also digital newspaper articles, news information sites, and videos.

The number of people reading paper magazines is also decreasing. The sight of people spreading out comic magazines on the train, which was common before, is also disappearing. Recently, the number of people reading digital comics has been increasing.

I joined Papyless (the name comes from "paperless") in 1995, the year the company was founded, which was the first company to start online sales of e-books in Japan. At that time, the internet had finally arrived in Japan, and Windows 95 had just been released for PCs. Due to capacity issues, the network environment only allowed for text distribution.

We started by digitizing novels and distributing them via PC communication, calling them "e-books." We sought permission (automatic public transmission rights) from publishers to digitize and distribute paper books, but at the time, we were told, "People won't read books on a PC," and it was difficult to gain their understanding.

However, e-books have advantages such as "not taking up space" and "being convenient to read anytime, anywhere." Eventually, the network environment improved, capacity expanded, and it became possible to distribute images and videos. Devices also evolved into mobile types that could be carried around like mobile phones. In particular, the spread of smartphones was significant, and with the appearance of tablets and dedicated e-book devices, they gradually became known to the general public.

However, 80% of the current e-book market consists of comics. While the digitization of magazines and newspapers is progressing, text-based works such as novels and practical books are still few in number. Many comics are simply digitized versions of paper media, and when viewed on a smartphone screen, the size doesn't quite fit, making the text in speech bubbles difficult to read. Regarding text-based works, it seems there are still few people who primarily read them as e-books.

Therefore, I decided to start developing "next-generation books" to provide content in a more readable format. Next-generation books are not just digitized versions of paper books in their original form, but a new type of book designed to be easy to view on devices like smartphones and tablets, utilizing features unique to digital devices.

For comics, we developed "Tate-Comi" (meaning comics read vertically), which allows users to scroll vertically to match the device screen, and we changed what was previously black and white into color. Furthermore, we developed comics with movement and audio, which we call "Ani-Comi" (a fusion of the characteristics of both animation and comics).

In addition, for novels, we developed "E-Novel," which focuses on illustrations and displays them together with text. This is popular even among the younger generation who do not read many text-based works. Practical books are also provided in the form of micro-content, allowing users to read only the parts they want by dividing the book into volumes. We have also added a text-to-speech function.

This audio function is well-received not only by the visually impaired but also by seniors who find it difficult to read small text. I believe the reading style will expand from just reading text silently to listening to audio.

I believe these new next-generation books will create the e-books of the future. I hope that the number of works will increase in the future and that more people will use e-books, including text-based works.

Furthermore, e-books have a major advantage: they are easier to expand globally compared to paper. Because of production costs and distribution issues, selling paper books worldwide is extremely expensive, so it is limited to a few works such as bestsellers. In that regard, with e-books, producing just one copy makes it possible to sell it worldwide via the internet.

In particular, while Japanese comics are highly regarded overseas, their recognition is still low compared to anime. We have been operating the e-book rental site "Renta!" since 2007. This site has English and Chinese versions, where we translate Japanese digital comics into English and Chinese to sell them in English-speaking and Chinese-speaking regions.

Being able to immediately read Japanese comics that are difficult to obtain overseas has been well-received by international users, and authors are also pleased to be able to expand their sales channels abroad.

I have always felt it was a pity that although Japan is a country of book lovers unlike any other in the world and the quality of its works is high, there are few opportunities to share them with the world. I hope that e-books will be a catalyst for overcoming such barriers and that many readers will be born all over the world in the future.