Here in America, we think of e-books as being on the verge of kicking paper back to the dark ages. But only in America do e-books make up as much as 20% of total book sales—it’s a very different story in the rest of the world. PaidContent reports that e-books are only 6% of UK book sales, but in much of the rest of Europe it’s only 1%, and almost zero almost everywhere else.
PaidContent goes into the reasons that the e-book market has been slow to develop elsewhere. One problem is a lack of affordable e-readers—Kindle is almost nonexistent outside of the US and the UK, and local companies haven’t done as well at getting e-readers out there. And in a chicken-or-the-egg sort of situation, there aren’t many e-books available either.
E-books also cost a lot more in foreign countries than the US (perhaps due in part to Amazon’s early efforts to keep prices low, but on the other hand everything tends to cost more in Europe already and a lot of European countries still fix prices on books), and most European countries slap a much higher VAT (value-added tax) on e-books than they do on print books. And, of course, developing markets with a much larger poor lower class have their own problems supporting expensive e-book readers.
The article doesn’t offer many solutions, but suggests that the international market will continue to grow slowly until some of these problems are solved. In the meanwhile, I suppose those of us in the US and to a lesser extent the UK should be thankful for the e-book opportunities we have.
From what I read in the forums, people in other countries would be perfectly willing to purchase Kindles if all of the content available in the US was available worldwide. The geo-restrictions on ebooks just don’t make sense during the age of the Internet.
I’ve never understood why the active content is restricted to the US. Those items don’t have the geo-restrictions like books do.
I haven’t noticed that term before. What items in the Kindle Store would be “active content”?
It’s the lack of competition. We have nook vs. Kindle, Europe has just a halfhearted commitment from Kindle.
But that’s about to change in the UK, Germany and France.
And by that, I mean they’ll have the nook soon too.
http://www.thebookseller.com/profile/bn-lynchpin.html
@Alan, active content would be games/apps that run on the Kindle.
As an eBook buyer/reader from New Zealand I have never understood the need for geographic restrictions in this internet age, especially as the print versions are readily available. As someone who refuses to buy eBooks from Amazon I get frustrated at the number of ‘Amazon only’ eBooks. Believe it or not, not everyone wants a Kindle or Kindle eBooks.
Buying eBooks through Kobo’s New Zealand shopfront is a mixed blessing – US published eBooks are for the most part reasonably priced but eBooks from UK publishers are overpriced.
At Kobo – Stephanie Laurens latest release is NZ$21.09 (approx GBP10.50) but for UK eBook buyers at BooksonBoard the same eBook is GBP4.49 (approx NZ$10.00)
At Kobo – Bernard Cornwell’s latest release is NZ$21.99 (approx GBP11.00) but for UK eBook buyers at BooksonBoard the same eBook is GBP8.49 (approx NZ$17.00)
I know Ireland is a teeny tiny country, but I can almost spit from my house to the coast of the UK … and we have to buy from Amazon’s American web site, in dollars. Bizarre. Allied with the ghastly recession, this kind of thing doesn’t exactly encourage readers.
There is also that usurious “wireless delivery fee” that Amazon slaps on every e-book purchased outside USA. Even if you have WiFi-only device, even if you use Kindle for Android or Kindle for PC or that reader that works inside of browser. Add that $1.99 delivery fee to a $9.99 book and you get much less desirable price. Add it to $3.99 book and the price is plain discouraging. With all those $.99 or $0 books it becomes balant price gouging. The $1.99 is not *that* significant in terms of actual money, but customers are much less likely to purchase content when they feel that they are gouged.
The $1.99 “wireless delivery fee” disappeared for *some* countries, but even then a book that costs $.99 elsewhere is $3.49 (or some similar sum) for me, here where I am at the moment.
Regarding georestrictions. I can understand that publisher that has purchased rights for UK would be angry if publisher from USA starts selling e-books in their territory. I might disagree, but I can understand. But explain to me, why that regional dispute between USA an UK publisher prevents customer from Poland, or Finland, or India or small pacific island from buying the e-book?!? There is large market for book in English outside USA/UK/CA/AUS/NZ. It is true, there are not many people that read in English here in my small town in this non-English-speaking country, but there are quite a few of us worldwide.
I personally have started with e-books some 15 years ago when I exhausted supply of available reading material in English here. At that time, paper books in English were *very* expensive here (price for import, surcharge for rarity, plus very unfavorable currency conversion).
PaidContent is wrong. Availability of devices is NOT AN ISSUE. Kindles are available in 177 countries. In many of them they are the cheapest ereading devices, even with shipping costs. Same with iPad.
The real problem is that neither Amazon nor Apple offer content in different languages via their native channels.
So, for instance in Poland, Kindle is said to be the most popular ereading device. In Kindle Store there are 100 Polish language books. Polish ebookstores offer more than 10,000 books.
You either own a famous device with no content or have access to content from a more expensive and not-so-cool device offered by a local ebookstore.
More on this: http://ebookfriendly.com/2011/08/19/international-content-for-kindle-missed-opportunity/
@Peter: Good link. However, the stated timeframe for B&N moving into europe “within three years” is out of line with what we’re seeing from the other global players (Amazon, Apple, Kobo) who are moving in *now*.
The statement may be a feint, disinformation; it might be that B&N believes the euro markets will continue to develop slowly, so they feel no need to move now; or it could be they understand the need to play globally but prefer to deploy their limited funds shoring up their position in the US.
I see a lot of merit in the first interpretation–if you’re not moving in now there is no value in pre-announcing–but I suspect the latter interpretation is more likely. Adding up lots of little recent things, I’m thinking B&N is skating too close to the edge for comfort. And too close to get too aggresive in expansion.
While they are obviously aware of the need to expand their reach, they are equally aware that job one is survival.
B&N may be moving into europe “soon”, but I wouldn’t bet on “soon” being all that soon. 🙂
Piotr why don’t Polish people buy from their local eBook stores and read on the Kindle ? Or is it that this hurdle is too much of a pain in the ass ?
Howard, local ebookstores (probably everywhere in the world) are using ePub with Adobe DRM. You have to be extremely determined to convert and remove DRM every time you bought a book – and you have to be tech-savvy to do it. It’s far from a famous 1-Click, right?
Mainstream users won’t do it. Ebooks will go mainstream when there will be no problem with compatibility and no need to hack anything – just like there is no need to hack print books.
Piotr … of course .. I agree. Crazy.
Piotr – actually you don’t have to be all *that* determined. Install calibre, install the appropriate plugins, forget DRM ever existed. Still need to be tech-savvy enough to install calibre and find the plugins, or at least have a tech-savvy friend point you to them, but once you’re set up it’s 1-click-and-forget-forever.
Piotr – so could you post a comment/article on what users who want to buy eBook from a range of online sellers can do ? those who are not tech savvy ? Is the iPad the only choice ?
@Peter
I know Calibre but I’m too lazy to set it up plus I hope one day there will be no reason to use it. Actually I think think Calibre is one of the labels of the tech stage of ebook evolution.
@Howard
They can use tablets/smartphones. There are apps, also offered by local ebookstores, which give access to their offer. I can have one tablet which gives access to Kindle, B&N and any other ebookstore (the ones which use Adobe DRM can be served by BlueFire Reader or Aldiko).
The real problem is with ereaders.
Kindle is the most known and the cheapest (for instance in Poland ereaders from Polish ebookstores are 30-50% more expensive than Kindle). People buy Kindle and start to look for books. There are no Polish books in Kindle Store. Result: People turn to Polish ebookstores. Result: they realize there is not easy to download such books to Kindle. Result 1: they turn to English books from Kindle Store (like I did). Result 2: they turn to conversion&DRM removal. Result 3: they turn to piracy sites.
@Piotr – I have to disagree. I find calibre indispensable for its library-management functions, and I’ll continue to use it (or something like it) long after the happy day when we no longer have to worry about DRM disinfection or trying to keep straight which of the 47 different “standard” formats our books are delivered in. That it handles disinfection and format-shifting transparently is obviously a bonus in the current environment, of course, but that’s hardly all it does.
Piotr – you are so right about piracy being the end result of the actions of the Amazons.
Also it appears to me, from what you say and confirm, that for readers who want real control over their eReading, over choosing what they read and where they buy their eBooks from, the ultimate devices to chose at this point in time are tablets. Whether is be iPad or Android.
eReaders are limiting and and controlling their owners in a huge way that is unacceptable for anyone who really wants to be free to explore all of the sources for great reading on the web.
Being able to have a seamless purchase process while trying to get an ebook from Amazon if you order it outside the US would increase sales, no doubt about it.
It just sucks that geo restrictions still exist. What’s the point of such absurd policies, anyway?
@Howard – for readers who want real control over their reading and where they buy their books the ultimate solution is disinfect-DRM (and convert if necessary). If you *really* want control over where you buy, you’ll need a VPN (or at least a set of reliable proxies) as well to get around geo-restrictions.
Tablets are a distant second, since the battery of apps you have for dealing with today’s formats won’t help you when one of the vendors changes their DRM scheme (Adobe), adds a new one that isn’t compatible with your current software (Adobe again), or just abandons the format altogether, leaving you with no access to your books (Microsoft).