BEIJING — China's retail sales of books totaled 102.3 billion yuan ($14.7 billion) in 2019, up 14.4 percent year-on-year, said a report issued at the Beijing Book Fair.

A total of 71.5 billion yuan was spent via online channels, increasing by 24.9 percent from 2018, while sales through bookstores dropped by 4.24 percent from 2018, totaling 30.76 billion yuan, according to the report.

It showed that there were 194,000 new titles in the book retail market last year, representing a 6.7-percent decline from 2018.

Book sales through online channels accounted for 70 percent of the total in 2019, proving the growing tendency of readers to buy books through online stores, experts said.

The book fair is co-organized by the Publishers Association of China and the Book and Periodicals Distribution Association of China.