AI translation helps Chinese web novels find more readers abroad

China’s online literature industry has enjoyed a boom in overseas sales, thanks to the rapid development of artificial intelligence (AI) technology that allows Chinese web novels to be translated quickly for foreign consumption, new research shows.

In 2022, the sector raked in 4.06 billion yuan (US$572 million) in sales from abroad, representing a nearly 40 per cent year-on-year jump, according to a report published on Tuesday by Tencent Holdings-backed China Literature.

The report – supported by the China Audio-Video and Digital Publishing Association, a trade body under the Communist Party’s Publicity Department – highlighted the role of technologies such as generative AI in enhancing efficiency and reducing costs.

These AI tools have streamlined the once labour-intensive translation process, enabling the adaptation of Chinese content into various languages for global markets, the report said.

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As of last year, the Chinese industry had released more than 34 million online publications, with some being translated into over 20 different languages and marketed them in more than 40 countries and regions across Southeast Asia, North America, Europe and Africa, according to the report.

The findings were presented at the second Shanghai International Online Literature Week, which takes place from December 5 to 8. The event brings together writers, translators, scholars and representatives from 18 countries.

Since Microsoft-backed US start-up OpenAI released ChatGPT to the public a year ago, generative AI has transformed the way many businesses operate, helping users draft emails, summarise reports and write speeches.

Chinese companies from Big Tech firms to AI start-ups have since launched similar chatbots and promoted the use of their ChatGPT rivals in traditional industries.

AI has improved translation efficiency by more than 100 times and cut costs by over 90 per cent, according to China Literature, which said it had been increasing investments in the technology since earlier this year to improve its internal translation workflow.

The company said some of its biggest global web novel hits that were translated with the help of AI include Mythical Era: I Evolved Into A Stellar-Level Beast, a fantasy novel translated from Chinese to English, and The Duke’s Masked Wife, a fantasy romance translated from English to Spanish.

Not all readers were impressed, though.

“Terrible translation and poor grammar make this painful to read and ultimately not worth the headache,” a user named Kastelan commented on the page of Mythical Era.

“Good story ruined by garbage machine translation,” wrote another user named Tardtastic.

Others were more supportive.

“I won’t lie, the beginning is rough, especially the translation of names, but if you stick with it, it gets a lot better,” said a user named BadgeLeopard2A7.

WebNovel, the global online fiction platform operated by China Literature, has released more than 3,600 works translated from Chinese, according to the Shanghai-based firm. It plans to use AI to translate its works into more languages, including English, Spanish, Bahasa Indonesia, German, French, Japanese and Portuguese.

The report also found that Gen-Z, referring to those born between mid-to-late 1990s and early 2010s, made up more than 80 per cent of the readership on WebNovel, with readers coming from over 200 countries and regions.