57 The Global eBook Report
Emerging MarketsRussia70% of Russian readers read ebooks, according to a surveyin 2013, and the competition from online and digital isseen, by 65%, as the main reason for a decline in the circulationof printed books, followed by 28% who spend lesstime reading, and 27% who refer to the cost of books onpaper. As 92% admit to getting ebooks from the Internet“for free”, the report also highlights the impact from endemicpiracy on the (legal) Russian book market. (Data reportedby Russia beyond the Headlines, 28 June 2013)Russia has a book market currently worth 60,000 millionRubles in sales (ca $1,865 million, down from US $2 billionin 2011), according to estimates from the largest retailchain and publisher, Ozon, quoted by the Russian FederalAgency for Press and Mass Media. If purchases by publicinstitutions are included, for instance for school libraries,the total value is around 79,000 million Rubles, or $ 2,456million, according to the Russian Book Industry Magazine,in a briefing for this report).Developments in Russia’s book market has been complexand unsteady in recent years. After significant growth inthe early 2000s, when the value of the Russian book markethad almost doubled from US $1.6 billion in 2003 to US $3.0billion in 2008, the trend was reversed when the economiccrisis hit, bringing the market down to about US $2.3 billionin 2011 (US $2.5 billion in 2010).In 2012, the Russian book market continued to slide involume, by 9 percent, although a rise in retail prices compensatedfor the loss, bringing it to a mere 4 percent invalue (Olga Ro, Russian Book Industry Magazine, in a communicationfor this report).The year 2012 saw significant changes in the structure ofthe market, driven by both internal and internationalforces. The most spectacular domestic disruption resultedfrom the country’s biggest publishing group, AST, collapsingunder a burden of debt in early summer 2012. Its rivalEKSMO, the second-largest publishing group, gained managementcontrol over AST, further strengthening its alreadysubstantial position in the market. By the end of2012, EKSMO reported an increase of sales of between 5and 6 percent.Top bestselling titles at the end of 2012 included E.L.James’ Shades of Grey trilogy, occupying the first three positionsin October and November, topped only in Decemberby the Russian novelist Boris Akunin with Black City.By genre, only children’s books saw a substantial rise at theend of the year (by 14 percent), largely because of theirpopularity as Christmas gifts. Fiction declined by 6 percent(Russian Book Industry Magazine).The ongoing turbulence had strong repercussions on theretail and distribution side as well. In 2011, the largest bookchain, Top Kniga, crashed. In April 2012, AST’s wholesalearm, Pyaty Okean, filed for bankruptcy. However, half ofthe market is in the hands of some 3,000 independentbookstores who reportedly performed slightly better thenthe largest chains, recording a loss of only 2 percent (RussianLiterature Online).Due to its immense territory—which covers nine timezones between its western and eastern borders, makingdistribution of physical books extremely complex andcostly—with few consumers carrying credit cards and thesevere effect of piracy, Russia is a particularly challengingenvironment for publishers and retailers, but there is alsoa thriving reading culture in which writers and intellectualsoccupy a prominent role in the public sphere and in whichbooks stand at the center of the country’s cultural ambitions.The Global eBook Report 58
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ContentsAbout the Global eBook Repo
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• The Bookseller (United Kingdom)
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Executive SummaryThis report provid
- Page 9 and 10: The ambitions, and thelimitations o
- Page 11 and 12: ending requests by email and face t
- Page 13 and 14: Chris Kenneally, Copyright Clearanc
- Page 15: A Global Industry, and Many Local P
- Page 18 and 19: transformation longer than other se
- Page 20 and 21: The Bookish Elites: Market size & n
- Page 22 and 23: Book markets evolution in selected
- Page 24 and 25: Market share of ebooks (in various
- Page 26 and 27: English Language eBookMarketsThe fo
- Page 28 and 29: United States (2010-2011 Book Marke
- Page 30 and 31: Ebooks accounted in 2013 for one in
- Page 32 and 33: stores, and 700 Argo stores, as wel
- Page 34 and 35: Metadata is the key to online sales
- Page 36 and 37: EuropeGermanyUpdate spring 2014Afte
- Page 38 and 39: GermanyKey Indicators Values Source
- Page 40 and 41: Ebooks evolve in a complex and chal
- Page 42 and 43: actively seeking Google’s coopera
- Page 44 and 45: SpainKey Indicators Values Sources,
- Page 46 and 47: early days there. Yet according to
- Page 48 and 49: According to the Danish book trade
- Page 50 and 51: and Amazon is as well. Barnes & Nob
- Page 52 and 53: PolandKey Indicators Values Sources
- Page 54 and 55: The emerging role of ebooks in Cent
- Page 56 and 57: Nemokamospdfknygos (Aida Dubkeviči
- Page 58 and 59: play a role for starting to change
- Page 62 and 63: RussiaKey Indicators Values Sources
- Page 64 and 65: OzonOzon is a general retailer sell
- Page 66 and 67: tribute the PDFs they had received
- Page 68 and 69: a company wants—and it should—t
- Page 70 and 71: also has the fourth largest install
- Page 72 and 73: ChinaKey Indicators Values Sources,
- Page 74 and 75: lion in 2008 to ¥60 million in 201
- Page 76 and 77: The National Book Trust (NBT), the
- Page 78 and 79: tion. Of these, 73% youth are liter
- Page 80 and 81: Wiley were among the first. Much of
- Page 82 and 83: launched with 47 titles, available
- Page 84 and 85: Ebook publishers are faced with the
- Page 86 and 87: Arabia, the situation improves dram
- Page 88 and 89: Contributed articleCopyright Cleara
- Page 90 and 91: Forces Shaping the eBook MarketsA c
- Page 92 and 93: In the current battle over emerging
- Page 94 and 95: Paradoxically, the global expansion
- Page 96 and 97: The Expansion of GlobalPlatformsPub
- Page 98 and 99: Interestingly, all Amazon figures b
- Page 100 and 101: $1.8 billion”, equalling some 8%
- Page 102 and 103: leader in the digital industry thro
- Page 104 and 105: By January 2013, Kobo claimed to ow
- Page 106 and 107: aggressively at €0.99 or €2.99,
- Page 108 and 109: edition of the same titles is still
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Self-publishingUpdate spring 2014In
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continental Europe have launched th
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Goodreads, launched by Otis Chandle
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Regulatory frameworksThe litigation
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Receptiveness for foreign(English)
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suffers not in spite of but because
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entific and professional publishing
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utors. Börsenverein’s own Librek
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sources and blogs promoting and poi
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In France, the independent literary
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eBook Yellow PagesThe eBook Yellow
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dotbooksEdiciones B, founded in Bar
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Neowood Éditions is a French digit
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those who would like to create thei
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about 60,000 ebooks. In November 20
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making the ebook creation and publi
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extended ranges of books and audio
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MyiLibrary is an econtent aggregati
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that publishes RNTS branded digital
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lishers and over 30 sales channels,
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Professional organizationsProfessio
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Advertising in the eBookYellow Page
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The acceleratedtransformation of th
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IndexSymbols100knygu, 13224Symbols,
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INscribe, 139Integral, 139iStoryTim