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RussiaKey Indicators Values Sources, commentsBook market size (p+e, at consumer prices) 60,000 million Rubles 2012 (estimate by OZON and quoted by FederalAgency for Press and Mass Communication); 79,000million Rubles incl. purchases by public institutions.Titles published per year (new and successiveeditions)New titles per 1 million inhabitants 623116,888 Russian Book ChambereBook titles (available from publishers) 80 - 100,000 (commercial and free by end of 2012) LitResMarket share of ebooks >1%Key market parametersA few committed and professional actors in bothpublishing and online retail; very high impact ofpricacyIn June 2013, the Russian government pledged to invest$100 millon until 2018 to support the publishing industryand improve its infrastructure. (Publishing Perspectives, 10June 2013)According to a report by the Russian edition of Forbesmagazine, Amazon is preparing the launch for a dedicatedRussian website and Kindle store for 2013. (Forbes, 19 April2013), and indeed the American platform has hired thehead of publisher Azbuka –Atticus to run operations whichare seen to “confirm that the digital book market in Russiais ready for growth and development.” (Mikhail Osin, anexecutive of the largest online bookshop Ozon, quoted inBook Industry Magazine, 3 July 2013)With 116,888 titles published in 2012 (down from 122,915in 2011), educational works represented one-third (32.2percent) of published titles, science and popular science21.1 percent, fiction 14.9 percent, and children’s books 9percent. Fifty-eight percent of all titles are published inMoscow and another 8 percent in Saint Petersburg; byprint run, the Muscovite share is 85 percent. Book chainsown 24 percent of the market, versus 45 percent for independentbookstores, and 7 percent was controlled by onlinestores (all data from the Federal Agency for Press andMass Communication).The evolution of the Russian ebook marketAs of 2012, “the ebook business has really taken off and isbooming in Russia,” according to Olga Ro, of the RussianBook Industry Magazine (communication for this report,January 2013). And indeed, many industry voices, includingEKSMO’s CEO, Oleg Novikov, anticipated substantialgrowth for ebooks in 2013. This was ever more remarkable,as only one year earlier, critical expectations had beenvoiced at many professional debates about the rampantpiracy threatening the emerging business to the point ofmaking successful commercialization next to impossible.And yet, 10,000 legal downloads have been recorded forShades of Grey alone in 2012. The expectations have shifted,with industry leaders reporting on successful shiftstoward legal downloads, notably by expanding the availablecatalog and by improving the conveniance of commercialplatforms (e.g., statement by Sergey Anuriev, CEOof Litres, the largest ebook portal, owned by EKSMO, at theTOC Frankfurt conference in October 2012).Overall, revenues from (legal) sales of ebooks have accountedfor 260 million Rubles in 2012 ($ 8 million, up from135 million Rubles in 2011; The Russian Book Market, FederalAgency for Press and Mass Communication, 2013). Theincrease was also reflected by growth in ebook salesthrough mobile channels, including Apple’s iTunes andiBookstore, and Google Play.In addition, the penetration of devices, both ereaders andtablets, seems to have soared in 2012 by around 200 percent,with domestic Russian products winning significantmarket share over imported gadgets. The initial dominanceof Apple’s iPad has reportedly dropped from 90 percentin 2011 to about 40 percent in 2012, with Samsung’sGalaxy gaining ground (Olga Ro in a communication forthis report).In December 2012, the US and Russian governments announceda joint “Online Piracy Crackdown Agreement”(see details in “eBook piracy in Europe: The example anddebate in Germany, and related findings”).59 The Global eBook Report