More Germans are buying e-books, especially during the first half of 2018, which led to a strong growth of the e-book market in the country, according to statistics released by the German Publishers and Booksellers Association on Thursday.

The number of buyers of e-books increased by 6.1 percent in the first half of 2018 to 2.7 million people, and the average number of books purchased jumped to 6.2 e-books per buyer during the time frame, according to the statistics.

More buyers and an increased purchase intensity led to significant growth in revenues as compared to the same period the previous year.

For the first time in a half-year, revenue broke the 100-million-euro (114 million U.S. dollar) mark. Compared with the first half of 2017, the revenue of e-books rose by 11.3 percent to 100.6 million euros in 2018.

For the fourth year since 2014, the German Publishers and Booksellers Association conducted a broad-based e-book study for Germany in cooperation with a German market research institute, GfK SE, and Consumer Panels Division. The study sheds light on the perspective of customers, retailers and publishers.