중국 오디오북 플랫폼의 발전과 현황 — ‘히말라야’를 중심으로

Abstract

With the development of digital technology, Audio streaming and media service provider using smartphones are emerging today, and by providing audio book contents, reading is possible regardless of time and place. In China, Audio streaming and media service provider has emerged as the network environment has been reorganized from PC to mobile since 2012. “Himalaya(喜馬拉雅)” is a leading Audio streaming and media service provider in the Chinese audio content market with more than 10 million subscribers in a year since its debut in August 2012. The audiobooks owned by “Himalaya” can be classified into audio books, audio plays, and explanations of expertise, and recently, they have been producing highly recognized Internet novels into audiobooks in the form of multi-voice dramas. “Qingyunian” is a representative audio book produced in the form of multi-voice reading of Internet novels. In the process of the novel being voiced, the text was specified and expanded, abbreviated and deleted as necessary, and the description was transformed into dialogue. “Himalaya” are using the highly recognized “CV(character voice)” to enhance the fun of their works and actively promote them. These works are usually used for VIP payment rather than free viewing, and are actively utilizing the fandom economy of the original novel. “Himalaya” removed “FM” from its initial company name, “Himalaya FM”. The provider 's de-FM movement is known as a choice to expand core business models due to the low ceiling of the voice content industry and low profitability pressures. It is currently expanding its business to smart hardware areas such as automotive AI speakers and smart home devices. Today, as the entire knowledge payment industry is changing, it is necessary to pay constant attention and research to what kind of change the bonding between voice and technology will bring about, and how our reading and literature consumption will change.