Oct 2020 According to market survey organization iiMedia's report, in 2019 there were about 1,000 newly opened study lounges nationwide and the number of paid users soared from 850,000 in 2018 to 2.3 million in 2019. No wonder some media outlets called 2019 the "first year" of study lounge startups. The sector's rapid growth last year could be attributed to the increasing pressure of employment and shortage of public facilities such as public libraries. According to the 2019 Statistical Bulletin of Culture and Tourism Development of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, there are 3,196 public libraries nationwide, meaning more than 438,000 people sharing one public library.