China’s online literature industry continued its rapid growth in 2024, with the domestic reading market generating 43.06 billion yuan (around $5.96 billion) in revenue, a rise of 6.8 percent year-on-year, according to a report by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
Revenue from IP adaptations surged 14.6 percent to 298.56 billion yuan (about $41.31 billion) as adaptations increasingly gained synergy with short dramas, games, and other forms of content across multiple platforms. y the end of 2024, the number of online literary authors surpassed 31 million for the first time, with 41.65 million works published. The user base grew to 575 million, marking a 10.6 percent increase.
Beyond its domestic success, Chinese online literature also made strong gains globally. Supported by AI-powered translation and the growing interplay between exported works, 808,400 titles went overseas in 2024, up 6.03 percent year-on-year. The overseas market exceeded 5 billion yuan (about $691.8 million), drawing over 460,000 foreign writers and 350 million readers across more than 200 countries and regions. Japan emerged as the fastest-growing market, with user numbers soaring by 180 percent.
