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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