How can mainland residents buy e-books from Hong Kong and Taiwan?

Oct 19, 2018

Why buy Hong Kong and Taiwan e-books? It may be for a better translation, or it may be because you know me and the relevant departments know it. In any case, e-books are more accessible than physical books.

I can't answer the question "Which platform is better?" Because some books and publishers only publish on certain platforms, which platform you choose is basically determined by the book you want to read. My personal most used ones are Google Play, US Amazon, Kobo.

E-books in Taiwan and Hong Kong should be discussed separately, but many platforms do not, and there is no need for us to discuss them separately. This article is not a comprehensive guide, just the author's record and summary, welcome to leave a message for advice.

Google Play Books

Buying books on Google Play is nothing new, but Google Play doesn't have a section for Chinese books, which means you can't browse for Chinese e-books. If you want to find Chinese books, you can only search for Chinese keywords first, and then you can find more Chinese books in the "Similar E-books" at the bottom of the e-book page.

When you view more Chinese books, more Chinese books will appear in "Recommended eBooks" on the Play Books homepage. That is to say, only with the increase of collection, purchase, and reading, Google Play Books will be like a Chinese version.

According to my observation, there are more Taiwanese books on Google Play than Hong Kong books. As a Twitter user ВОВВУ said: "Taiwanese books have the most on Google Play, followed by Kobo. Amazon currently does not allow traditional books directly, so there are fewer."

Google Play supports credit cards, PayPal, and gift cards, but does not support UnionPay cards and PayPal in China (at least my PayPal cannot be bound). Some domestic Visa and Mastercard credit cards can be bound with accounts (refer to here ), another The plan is to go to Taobao to buy a gift card to recharge. If you're a new user, Play Books may issue coupons, typically up to $10.

Play Books can be read in browsers, Android, iOS clients, but cannot be purchased in iOS clients.

Amazon USA

US Amazon has several pages that include Chinese e-books, but they cannot be counted as special sections. As far as I can see, the ratio of simplified and traditional Chinese books on Amazon is similar, and some categories are more simplified. Traditional books seem to be dominated by Hong Kong books, such as a series of e-books from the Chinese University of Hong Kong Press .

Amazon in the United States supports credit cards (supports UnionPay) and gift cards. Gift cards can be recharged by themselves or purchased from Taobao.

Amazon's e-books are naturally viewed with a Kindle reader or Kindle App, which supports Win, Mac, iOS, and Android. There are free selections in the Kindle App. Similarly, the iOS side cannot be purchased directly.

Kobo TW/HK

Kobo is a Canadian company founded in 2009 and is now part of the Rakuten Group. This Rakuten is Rakuten, a Japanese e-commerce company, not a Korean supermarket Lotte.

Kobo can choose from Taiwan and Hong Kong branches. The books on the shelves on both sides are basically the same, and the purchased books can also be synchronized. However, Kobo seems to have more books published in Hong Kong than in Taiwan.

From my experience of using it for a short time, the experience of Kobo client (Android) is not as good as that of Kindle client (Android). Press, click the icon in the lower left, select the highlight color. In addition, Kindle will automatically turn pages when swiping text to the edge of the screen, Kobo does not support this kind of cross-page swipe selection.

Kobo has a variety of clients, including Win, Mac, iOS, Android, Blackberry, and e-book readers, and recently released a new product: Kobo Forma.

Kobo supports credit cards, PayPal, and gift cards. Credit cards support Visa and Mastercard. Taobao doesn't seem to have Kobo's gift cards. I use PayPal.

Kobo's free ebooks section offers the occasional good book, like this free old edition of We're Happiest .

Hyread

Hyread is a relatively special platform. It was founded by Taiwan Lingwang Technology in 2010. From the introduction, it has two main businesses. One is to provide e-book services to libraries and schools in Hong Kong and Taiwan, which is a bit like the mainland. Chaoxing, Duxiu; the second is to sell e-books to individuals.

Hyread's e-books can be borrowed and purchased. Borrowing is only available to readers with library and school accounts, and purchases are unlimited. Perhaps because of the cooperation with Hong Kong institutions, Hyread has some books that are rarely found on other Taiwanese platforms, such as Xia Zhiqing's History of Modern Chinese Novels (PS: Google Play also has it).

Hyread has Win, iOS, Android clients, supports credit card, PayPal, Alipay.

Readmoo

Dumo is an e-book platform in Taiwan. It feels more modern and fresh to me. It was founded in 2012 and has received investment from the city-state group.

I've been trying to read ink for a short time, and I don't know much about the inclusion of the ebooks above, but it has a laudable feature: the ability to browse ebooks by publisher and translator.

Dumo supports a variety of clients, including browsers, Win, Mac, iOS, Android, and has also launched its own e-book reader.

Dumo is more friendly in terms of payment methods. Not only can you pay by credit card and PayPal, but also supports Tenpay and Alipay in mainland China.

Other eBook Platforms

In addition to the ones mentioned above, there are many online platforms where you can buy e-books/magazines from Hong Kong and Taiwan, such as Blog Lai (Taiwan), TAAZE (Taiwan), Chaoyue.com (Hong Kong) that sell both e-books and physical books. ), Pubu (Taiwan), which seems to be positioned in subcultures and young people, and Zinio (United States), which specializes in electronic magazines.

With so many platforms, don't know where to find the book you want to buy? Try the App on Google Play: Taiwan eBook Search .