With the pandemic raging around the globe, many outdoor activities and social gatherings have been halted by strict quarantine and social distancing measures. As a result, people have resorted to finding hobbies they can enjoy indoors. One of the solutions was reading, a hobby that was declining in popularity before the COVID-19 hit. According to Embrain, a private market investigation company, 46.9% of South Korean adults had reported an increase in yearly book count for reading. Also, 45.9% replied that a rise in time spent in their residential area had contributed to a surge in overall reading time.
Effects of the pandemic can also be identified in the sale records of various genres of books. Books have not only become an entertaining experience in and of themselves, but they have also become a medium for learning new indoor hobbies. According to data from the Kyobo Book Store, there has been a 62.3% increase in sales for general hobby books, 29.8% for home interior decoration, and 16.2% for home gardening. Spending extended periods at home has also prompted people to contemplate on themselves and their economic standing, giving a boost to self-improvement books and economy/business books.
More diverse reading options, other than the traditional paper book, have also assisted in the popularization of reading, as new e-book apps, e-readers, and audiobook suppliers have increased and expanded the market. Millie’s Bookshelf, an online e-book subscription service, recorded sales of 19.2 billion KRW, which is 74.5% higher than that of 2019. Audiobooks have also risen as an adequate alternative to e-books, which has the advantage that they can be listened to while also doing other tasks, such as cooking or transiting. The Seoul Library increased its assortment of e-books and audiobooks by threefold to match the increased demand, while Storytel, an audiobook platform application, announced that they had received 3.5 times more new registrations.
Despite the boom in reading-related industries, offline bookstores have still been hit hard by social distancing measures, with local small-scale bookstores experiencing large drops in customers. This has been in stark contrast with online bookstores reaching record sales. This prompted people to start petitions for local governments to save local bookstores, though most of these attempts have failed. Bulgwang Moongo, one of the largest and most prestigious non-corporate bookstores in Seoul, had to put up the shutters, stating COVID-19 and gentrification to be the largest factors contributing to their downfall. While local small-scale bookstores have been bearing the brunt of the burden, large-scale corporate bookstore chains have not been immune to the pandemic. Yes24, one of the largest bookstore chains, shut down their Gangnam district branch, which had been their first offline bookstore. While Yes24’s management has said they were open to new offline bookstore openings and extensions to existing stores, they also explained that they had been deliberating on novel store arrangements according to the change in consumer behavior due to the pandemic.
While these trend changes have been caused by a ravaging pandemic, they still have brought many unforeseen benefits, increasing reading times for people who never had the time or inclination to do so. Continuation of the pandemic will most probably reinforce current reading habits and cause a permanent and fundamental change in the reading industry and culture.