Domestic

Hanwang eyes big e-reader market

By Yu Hongyan (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2009-11-18 16:23

Hawang Technology, China's leading producer of electronic book readers (e-reader), surpassed Sony in monthly sales to become the world's second largest e-reader producer after Amazon.com since September this year, according to Liu Yingjian, founder and chairman of the company.

Monthly sales of Hanwang's e-readers come to 30,000 units at present. It has sold more than 200,000 units of e-readers in China since the launch of the product last year, and plans to sell 800,000 in 2009, according to a previous China Daily report.

DisplaySearch, a research firm, predicted China's e-reader sales will hit 800,000 this year and rise to 3 million in 2010, accounting for 20 percent of the world's total e-reader sales.

The prospect has drawn many to the market, including the State-owned Datang Telecom, China Mobile and China Unicom.

Hanwang hopes to outsell Amazon.com's e-reader Kindle next year, and become the world's largest e-reader provider in the future, according to Liu.

To sharpen its edge in the overseas market, Hanwang plans to set up a branch in France. It already has one in operation in Germany.