Report shows ebooks have greater share in English-language markets

An international ebook report has found significant disparity in growth rates between English-speaking and non-English-speaking markets, reports the Bookseller. The 2015 Global E-book Report, compiled by Ruediger Wischenbart, shows strong growth in the US and UK ebook markets over a number of years, with digital sales now making up around 30% of trade book markets. In contrast, the rate of progress in non-English speaking countries has been slower or non-existent. In these countries, including Germany, France, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands and Sweden, the trade book market share of ebooks is below 10%, ranging from as little as 1% in France to 4.3% in Germany and 4.7% in the Netherlands. The report notes: ‘In some countries like Germany, e-books have become a standard feature, at first appreciated by strong readers and by consumers of genre fiction, and with Amazon shaping that process as the market leader.’ In contrast, ‘in others, notably in France, both publishers and consumers seem not just to largely resist the emergence of e-books as a new market segment, but to see a French cultural specific trait in their sceptical approach’. The report concludes that across all markets ‘growth is showing signs of flattening out’, and dismisses early growth projections around ebooks ‘to be more of a fancy of marketeers, than a reality’.

Category: International news