Yes24 1020 Generation Book Reviews Reach 44,652
Up 52% Year-on-Year
January Book Purchases Rise 9%
Literature Sales Growth at 39%
Over 100 New Reading Clubs Formed in January
Amid the buzz surrounding Han Kang's Nobel Prize in Literature win and the 'Text Hip' trend, there is a noticeable increase in reading interest among the 1020 generation.
According to an analysis by Yes24's reading community ‘Sarak’, book reviews by the 1020 generation in 2024 recorded a remarkable increase of 15,000 from the previous year, reaching 44,652 reviews.
Rising Book Purchases Among 1020 Generation... January Literature Sales Surge 39%
The book purchase volume of the 1020 generation rose by 9% as of January this year. This is a record figure compared to the 18.2% increase recorded in 2024 from the previous year.
In particular, the popularity of literature, including novels, stood out. The momentum of the novel 'Geumnyu' which has been making a comeback since last year continued this year as well. Yang Gwi-ja's 'Mosun' and Choi Jin-young's 'Proof of the Cube' are also representative comeback books. The sales growth rate for the ‘novel, poetry, drama’ category among the 1020 generation was 39% as of January. The growth rate from 2023 to 2024 was 40%.
Despite it being the vacation period when exam preparation books and foreign language study books are popular, four books in the 'novel' category ranked within the top 20 overall bestsellers for the 1020 generation in January. Han Kang's 'Sonyeoni Onda' and 'Chaesikjuuija' ranked 8th and 20th respectively in the 1020 overall bestseller list. 'Mosun' and 'Geumnyu' settled at 13th and 15th place respectively.
Book Reviews Also Increase... 1020 Annual Reviews Surpass 44,000
According to an analysis of Yes24's reading community ‘Sarak’ usage, the number of book reviews by the 1020 generation, which was less than 30,000 in 2023, increased by 52% in 2024, surpassing 44,000. In particular, the number of reviews by readers under their teens surged about 3.5 times (240%). This far exceeds the overall review growth rate of 15.6%. The number of 1020 generation book reviewers rose by 34.9% compared to the previous year, and the number of readers under their teens surged 2.9 times (198%).
Yoo Seo-young, team leader of the Yes24 community team, explained, “As a generation specialized in SNS, the 1020 generation is a reader group that not only reads books but also does so-called ‘book marketing’ with honest and sincere reviews.” She added, “The culture of recording and sharing good book passages, along with the Han Kang reading craze, greatly influenced the increase in the number of 1020 generation book reviews.”
In fact, the most reviewed books by teenage readers in 2024 were novels such as Han Kang's 'Chaesikjuuija', 'Sonyeoni Onda', and Lee Kkot-nim's 'Yeoreumeul Han Ip Beeo Mureotdeoni', ranking 1st, 4th, and 5th respectively. This contrasts with 2023, when study method books or reference books topped the review rankings.
Over 100 New 1020 Generation Reading Clubs Established in January... ‘Non-face-to-face Meetings’ Popular
The culture of actively sharing good books on SNS among the 1020 generation has led to increased interest in ‘reading clubs’. Since the launch of the Sarak ‘Reading Club’ service in August last year, more than 1,600 clubs have been established within six months. In January alone, 502 new clubs opened, a tenfold increase compared to the previous month. Among these, 97 reading clubs were for the 1020 generation, accounting for 19.3% of the total.
Mostly, 'non-face-to-face meetings' dominated. 78% of the 20s and 90% of the teens' meetings were held online. In terms of reading club categories, the keyword 'literature' ranked first (22%). Free keyword clubs such as ‘clubs that read freely as they wish’ and ‘clubs for all genres of books’ accounted for 12.8% of all clubs.
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