Largest digital gateway in China launched

Publishing Technology and CNPIEC, the China National Publications Import and Export Corporation, unveiled the Digital Gateway, the most significant digital publishing platform ever launched for Chinese libraries, in a special ceremony at the London Book Fair.

The digital portal has been developed by Publishing Technology, the largest industry provider of software and services, on the company’s flagship online publishing platform, pub2web, and is managed by CNPIEC, the largest and most highly-developed publication import and export group in China. With semantically enriched content and interfaces in English and Mandarin, the site directly links international publishers to over 10,000 of CNPIEC’s public and academic member libraries and potentially millions of new users.

Through the Digital Gateway, international publishers will be able to extend their reach into a burgeoning, untapped market, attracting new audiences to digest their content and opening up new revenue potential in the process. CNPIEC is the largest company fully licensed by the Chinese government to import publications, and the new site, in-line with the government’s long term digital publishing plans, will help improve online access and discoverability of content in Chinese libraries.

Wei Wu, deputy president of CNPIEC, commented: “The Digital Gateway is a significant new development in the digitisation of Chinese libraries and a refreshing new distribution channel for overseas publishers.” While, George Lossius, CEO at Publishing Technology, stated, “These are exciting times to be working in China. The academic sector is booming, the government is investing heavily in the country’s educational infrastructure, and the appetite for Western content in China is now greater than ever. Yet at the same time, the digital publishing landscape is still in its infancy.”