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In an early summary after the holidays and year-end 2012,the dynamics of the Brazilian ebook market turned out tobe spectacular. In December 2012, sales had grown tenfoldyear on year, increasing by 110 percent from November toDecember 2012 alone. This is a huge growth for a tinymarket. In 2012, DLD sold around 110,000 units. Based onthat, we can forecast the 2012 trade market to be around330,000 units.Another important source of book statistics is the yearlysurvey conducted by the Brazilian Book Chamber (BBC)and the Economics Research Institute, Fipe. The 2012 numbers,disclosed in July 2013, show that the book market inBrazil accounted for U.S. $2,439 million in wholesale value—i.e., publishers´ net revenues. However, this figure combines$1,795 million (or 73.6 percent) from the private sectorwith $644 million (or 26.4 percent) from the public sector,the latter coming mostly from federal program purchasesof educational materials. Because the governmentdoes not cover educational expenses for students in privateschools, another $635 million (or 24.6 percent of thetotal market) comes from private households buying K–12materials. Altogether, more than half of publishers’ revenuesderive from education.While overall statistics on Brazil’s book market (which is byfar Latin America’s largest) are considered dependable, theemerging digital segment still lacks sufficient scrutiny. Thegood news is that 2012 was the first year that the BrazilianBook Chamber did more extensive research on e-books.Among a sample of publishers that accounts for 54 percentof the market, according to the survey’s methodology,227,292 ebook units were sold in 2012, which gave thepublishers only US $1.7 million in revenues. The ebooksales were divided into subsectors: trade publishers sold130,119 units; Science, Technical and Medical publishing(STM) publishers sold 49,256; religious publishers sold29,072, and educational/K12 publishers sold 18,845. If wecombine trade and STM (there is a huge overlap in thosesectors in Brazil) and extrapolate to find the sales of thewhole market, we will get 332,000 units sold, very close toour first estimate based on DLD’s numbers, and this numberwould account for only 0.23 percent of all trade andSTM book units sold in Brazil in 2012.In a detailed projection for 2013, trade and STM ebooksales are expected to account for 2.6 percent of the marketshare by the end of December (Carlo Carrenho, “E-booksResponderão por 2,63% do Mercado em 2013,” 16 January2013; reviewed in “Estimada em 0.23% a Participação deE-books no Mercado Brasileiro em 2012,” August 1, 2013).The Brazilian ebook catalog is still growing steadily. In May2013, after analyzing the titles on the e-shelves of the majorretailers in Brazil, the website Revolução eBook disclosednumbers for the overall Brazilian Portuguese ebookcatalog. According to the research, about 25,000 Portugueseebooks were available. This includes both commercialand free titles. This represents huge growth in themonths since February 2011, when the website estimated11,000 titles. Apple had the largest catalog with 18,000 e-books available, followed by Amazon with 15,800 titles.On the mergers and acquisition front, the Brazilian digitalaggregator Xeriph was partially acquired by media giantAbril in May 2012. Abril now holds 70 percent equity inXeriph.For a broader overview on local and international actorswho are particularly active on the Brazilian ebook market,see below at ???BrazilKey Indicators Values Sources,CommentsBook market size (p+e, atconsumer prices)Titles published per year(new and successiveeditions)New titles per 1 millioninhabitantseBook titles (available frompublishers)Key market parametersUS $3,716 million(publishers’ revenues)PublishNews57,473 PublishNews10925,000 Revolução eBook(commercial & free,May 2013)Books are tax-free;government salesaccount for 26.4% ofpublishers’ revenuesThe good problem of Brazilian taxesAmazon, Kobo, Apple, and Google have all complainedand keep complaining about the Brazilian tax system, andthat was the excuse for delays in launching locally. The taxproblem, however, is essentially a good one: books are taxfreein Brazil. That is, the only taxes a publisher pays are onearnings and personnel taxes—there are no VAT or salestaxes. This is true for printed books, but when it comes toereaders and ebooks, everything becomes complicated ifThe Global eBook Report 64