Kada Story Defines Chinese Children's Digital Reading with its First Chinese Elementary Reading Product

BEIJING, March 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- On March 21, the "2018 Mobile Internet + Children's Reading Summit", co-organized by Kada Story and Dolphin Books, convened in Beijing. In attendance were over a hundred experts from home and abroad, who specialized in children's literature, publication and the internet. They had in-depth discussions on the relationship between elementary reading and children's early education, the role of digital education materials in children's education, as well as the access to and the upgrading of elementary reading facilitated by mobile internet.

"Talent Program" Targets Three Challenges in Elementary Reading

Kada Story, a pioneering platform for children's digital reading in China, released its customized elementary reading product, the "Talent Program", which is the first Chinese digital reading product for preschool children to be released in the world. Based on the strengths of mobile internet technology, it not only fully combines children's favorite picture books with elementary reading education, but also directly targets the three challenges in elementary reading: "the selection of books", "company and interpretation" and "feedback and assessment". The product provides a packaged solution for young parents in China as they encounter difficulties in their children's early reading.

The "Talent Program" is a tailored elementary reading plan for children between the ages of 2-6 years old, based on children's cognitive development patterns and the latest scientific research results in brain science. The selection model was developed by a team of preschool education experts from normal universities. It is deeply rooted in the fundamental logical science of education, constituting a system that covers five aspects including personal growth, social cognition, scientific exploration, basic artistic education and language culture. It consists of works by hundreds of famous Chinese and non-Chinese writers such as Cai Gao, Yang Yongqing, Fang Suzhen, Bao Dongni, Beatrix Potter (UK), Hans Christian Andersen (Denmark) and Guido van Genechten (Belgium).

In terms of "company and interpretation", the electric picture books of the "Talent Program" were recorded by national level broadcasters. Integrating picture book reading and audio book listening, the product meets children's needs in different scenarios. In addition, domestic experts and experienced practitioners in children's education were invited to interpret the stories, so as to help parents better learn the background and features of the stories, and facilitate children's understanding of the meaning and knowledge embedded in the stories, thus making parent-child reading more effective.

In terms of "feedback and assessment", the product platform forms real-time data reports by tracking children's reading. As the children indulge themselves in the world's literary classics, the parents can learn about the children's progress any time anywhere. 

Xie Linfei, the founder and CEO of Kada Story, hoped that the "Talent Program" would take the lead in the industry of early education by offering internet products based on the pioneering concept of "elementary reading". She pointed out that the products would stimulate interest in reading for children between 0 and 6, the golden period for brain development. The habit of reading would be cultivated, which would benefit the children throughout their entire lives. It not only helps children form a multi-dimensional understanding of the world, but also equips them with eyes to appreciate beauty and gives them a positive attitude.   

Lin Wenbao, an honorary professor of National Taitung University and eminent expert of children's literature, illustrated the close relationship between reading and early education from two aspects, "the facts of reading" and "the facts of education". He fully affirms and emphasizes the importance of elementary reading for children between 0 and 6 and how it affects their whole lives.

The daily digital reading time of Chinese children grew by 19% in two years

Kada Story Big Data Center demonstrated the reality of children's digital reading, based on 700 million data logs on children's reading accumulated over a three-year period.

The users are evenly distributed among age groups 0 to 9. Among the active users in 2017, 36% were children between 0 and 3; 39% were between 4 and 6; and 25% were between 6 and 9. It is worth noting that the accumulated daily reading time per capita grew to 24.3 minutes in 2017, a 19% growth in two years. The growth shows parents' increasing acceptance of children's digital reading, signifying the huge potential of the children's digital reading market.

In terms of geological distribution, the users no longer concentrate in first and second tier cities, but are rapidly growing in third and fourth tier cities, registering 34% in 2017, up from 26% in 2016. Digital reading provides a new solution to China's problem of uneven reading resources among regions, endowing children in rural areas with access to abundant reading materials.

Good Chinese digital reading product gains popularity among overseas Chinese

Dr. Wang Jing, chief editor and early reading promoter of Kata Story, said, "Reading digital materials, just as reading physical materials, is an important ability that children should develop in this mobile internet era when information is increasing explosively. Children's digital reading is no longer something of the future. Digital texts have already become influential in children's forming of knowledge and experience system. Children should gain the basic ability of reading digitally and understanding digital texts, whether or not they have time to do so or readily accept digital reading". 

As of February 2018, Kada Story has users in 160 countries and regions. From a global perspective, good Chinese digital reading products have huge market potential, for they not only meet the needs of Chinese children, but are also accepted and welcomed by overseas users.

Kada Story, the organizer of this summit, will continue to be at the forefront of the industry, exploring the field of elementary reading by drawing strengths from the technology and combing children's reading with children's education. We expect to see more original Chinese stories gain renewed vibrancy through our digital reading platform and more excellent children's literary works from all over the world, so that children will have access to abundant classic works of children's literature.

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