The Global eBook Market: Current Conditions & Future Projections

Chapter 1. Executive Summary

This report provides an overview of internationally emerging ebook markets, with a thorough analysis and synopsis of key global developments and a broad set of detailed references as a resource for anyone interested in the globalization of digital (book) content production and dissemination.

The report offers a status on the US and UK markets as well as a broad survey of data on emerging ebook markets across Europe and from Brazil, China, India, Russia, and the Arab world.

There are also chapters that focus on ebook bestsellers and pricing strategies across several markets, piracy, and the expanding activities of the leading global players such as Amazon, Apple, Barnes & Noble, Google, and Kobo. Key data on the more mature ebook markets in the US and UK serve as benchmarks.

The findings allow us to assess, on one hand, how the main drivers of digital change in the publishing industry impact international markets in similar ways, as reading platforms and distribution infrastructures become available and as publishers in all markets start to make their title catalogs available in digital formats. On the other hand, a wide array of local factors—from market size through tax and pricing regimes to cultural choices—show that each market must be presented with its unique defining traits.

In Europe, Germany is ahead in embracing digital trade books, especially fiction, but is clearly behind the US and UK. Countries as diverse as Austria, France, Italy, Poland, ...