Amazon Kindle officially rolled out a new subscription service in China on Tuesday, offering clients all-you-can-read e-books for a monthly subscription fee of only 12 yuan ($1.84). The company said the move follows its observation that there is a growing interest in China for paid content.

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The initiative dubbed 'Kindle Unlimited' gives Chinese Kindle subscribers access to over 44,000 digital books. Using Amazon's Kindle app, subscribers can now read as many e-books as they can on any smartphone or tablet computer as well as on any Kindle device.

According to Gu Fan, the head of Kindle content product management at Amazon China, the service aims to offer Chinese clients a more flexible way to read. It is also aimed at encouraging China's developing interest in the virtual book industry. Economist Zhu Ning, who recently published his book The Guaranteed Bubble, claims that the number of books read by Chinese people is "embarrassingly low."

Amazon China unveiled Kindle in December 2012, and by the end of last year, the company saw a 37-fold jump in the number of active paid readers per month. When the company noticed the decrease in the number of books being read by people, it launched the Kindle Unlimited service. However, Amazon needs to team up with more publishers and writers to maintain a sustainable growth of the new subscription service.

Zou Jihua, the digital media division director of China South Booky Culture Media Co Ltd, said that cooperating with Kindle is more of a marketing strategy instead of creating big money through selling. However, he stressed that as long as books are popular in China, money can be earned in different ways.

TagsAmazon, Kindle, Amazon China, e-books, digital books