BEIJING - China's digital publishing industry grossed 338.8 billion yuan ($55.5 billion) in 2014, up 33.4 percent year on year, said Sun Shoushan, deputy chief of the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television on Tuesday.

China had an online population of 649 million at the end of 2014, and 557 million of them access the internet through a phone or other mobile device, contributing to soaring growth of digital publishing revenue, Sun said.

The number of people reading e-books also surpassed those reading traditional printed books for the first time last year, with more than half of them reading on smartphone.

Entertainment now takes a large share of the digital publishing industry, Sun said, adding that online gaming accounted for 25.7 percent of the total revenue.