It's widely believed that e-books are tolling the death knell of physical books. But is it now the end of e-book giant Kindle in China?

Weibo, China's equivalent of Twitter, is abuzz with speculation that Amazon might be pulling Kindle out of China after its e-ink reading devices ran out of stock on e-commerce platform JD.com and its flagship store on Alibaba's Tmall was closed in October.

While the speculation has drawn sarcastic comments, with some netizens saying Kindle has long become irrelevant in China, where the device was just good enough to serve as a lid "to help cook" a cup of instant noodles, devoted users are unwilling to say goodbye to the once e-reader leader, which heralded the e-reading craze in China.