TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Book retailer Eslite Spectrum Corporation reported sales rose to 9.3 million books this year, even as the overall number of publications in Taiwan fell 10%, reports said Tuesday.

Over the past three years, the company’s revenue has risen at a steady pace, giving hope it could reach NT$30 billion (US$962.32 million) in 2028, Eslite Spectrum Chair Mercy Wu (吳旻潔) said. She added that the company’s book sales rose 3% during the year, with 10 million books a possibility in two years’ time, per CNA.

The numbers show that young people are still reading, Wu said. Revenue from comics, anime, and manga surged 60% over the past year, while the number of Eslite club members under the age of 29 who bought books jumped 118%.

Wu said that the bookstores turned a profit for just one year in 2015 thanks to Chinese tourists, and regained a balance between profit and loss in 2024. She said that if there were only one bookstore left in the world, it would be an Eslite shop.

A confidentiality clause in a contract prevented Wu from saying where a new overseas store will launch, but she said the location will be announced next year, with the shop opening in 2026 or 2027. At the same time, Eslite is closing smaller neighborhood stores opened during the COVID-19 pandemic due to changing needs. The last of the neighborhood shops, in New Taipei’s Tamsui District, is scheduled to close this month.

Wu expressed satisfaction that out of a population of 23 million, Eslite counts 4.14 million members, 2.5 million of whom have been active during the past three years. One of the targets for 2026 is to increase the number of return visitors and return buyers at the nearly 40 Eslite outlets in Taiwan.