1-2-3 to the eBook market

In my previous post, I wrote about how content consumption is going increasingly mobile as mobile devices are personal and always near you.  In this day and age of the Mobile Internet when time is now compressed more than ever, consumers are adapting their lifestyles in various activities like reading.  With the introduction of the Amazon Kindle in 2007 in the US and rest of the world in 2009, eBooks and eMagazines are now changing the ways consumers are interacting with the book media.

Here is a quick 1-2-3 to the eBook market:

(1) eBooks Global Market adoption: US leads, followed by the UK, emergent in Rest of the World

• Books business is BIG BUSINESS - around the world, people spent US$108 billion on books in 2009.
• In the US, eBooks have grown from 0.6 percent in 2008 of the total books trade  market, to 3% in 2009 and more recently to 7% in 2010.  Expect to see eBooks to have a market share of 22.5% of consumer books in 2015!
• The UK while lagging behind the US with 1.5% market share of consumer books in 2010 is expected to see this share rise to 14.2% in 2015

(2) eBooks can be consumed across multiple screens and ways

• eReaders (Amazon Kindle introduced in 2007) as the dedicated  eReading device which ensures a real book reading experience.
• Tablets (iPad in introduced in 2010) as the multifunction alternative reading devices, while on the move, e.g. with eMagazines.
• Smartphones for short mobile sequels read during daily commute.
• PCs, laptops which are great for reading special interest group eBooks, reference, education books.

(3) eBooks and eMagazines provide opportunities as ancillary channels

• Publishers can look forward to reinvent themselves in the book publishing value chain as content providers.
• With eBooks, publishers now have in their hands ancillary channels to market with potentially lower costs and higher margins.
• Publishers could earn ancillary revenues by going beyond the text in the books and repurposing the content to audio, video and even games.

Just like music, tv and video, the books industry has been experiencing disruptive changes in differing degrees around the world - led by the US and impacting the rest of the world through the proliferation of the mobile internet and multimedia consumption devices.

If you are a publisher, are you looking into eBooks?  If not, why?

If you are a consumer, how would you see eBooks changing your reading behaviors, now and in the future? 

Look forward to your views.


warm regards, later~
Nelson Wee
@nelsonwee

How content consumption is going mobile

How people have been used to consuming content before and how they are doing so today have changed dramatically over the last 20 years.  Content consumption has become more portable as mobile devices (smartphones, tablets etc) become more personal and always near at hand.

Mobile is Personal
It probably all started when we could start personalize the ring tone of your Nokia mobile phone in the 90s.  With that one feature sprang forth a large following and business for downloadable ring tones.  Thereafter with the advent of iTunes, there was no stopping music going portable.

It was also in the late nineties that the Snake game in Nokia mobile phones enraptured a community of Nokia loyalists into mobile gaming.  The mobile games business grew from strength to strength since then and ever more so today with the proliferation of smartphones and games with richer game-play.

The mobile has become ever more so personal with your favourite music and games mobile and portable, by your side.

Mobile is always near
Newspapers have not been spared.  The time has come to a pass when Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) has published the digital copy of the Straits Times as an iPad, iPhone app.  With time looked upon as a premium by the current Gen-X professionals and Gen-Ys not known to read physical print, SPH is looking to engage these lost readers through the other more in-their-face screens, i.e. tablets (largely iPads today) and smartphones.

Besides newspapers, more screen time on tablets and smartphones with digital versions of magazines and books have also encroached upon our daily lives.  Bookstores are disappearing one by one. In Singapore, I bade a sad farewell to the landmark Borders bookstore at Wheelock Place recently.  With the mobile internet always in your hand whether from your tablet or smartphone, you now have easy access to your favourite magazine or book, whereever you are.  Never stop reading.  Never stop learning.  No more downtime. No need to think about which book or magazine to bring along.  It is also said that consumers now buy eBooks or eMagazines without thinking, more spontaneously so, as they require physical storage and are with you all the time!

For devoted readers of novels, people who sometimes voraciously consume several books in a single week, eBooks are a natural fit.  With this new transitionary digital age, eBooks are now availed on the first day the physical book is published and can be about the same price as well (at times, more affordable too!)  It comes with no surprise that eBook best-seller lists are now packed with the genre novels that have traditionally dominated paperback best-seller lists.

I have not yet touched on video but with YouTube being the world's second largest search engine and third most visited site, I reckon you get the drift on where's video going. [Added 7-OCT 2011]: According to a Nielsen India study, Indian Smartphone Users are now seen to be moving towards Data, Games and Content, and Away From SMS.
With content consumption habits changing with content consumption going more mobile, mobile apps with content could provide us with a number of ancillary channels and ancillary revenue opportunities. Although the type of content, (shorter) length of attention of your audience on your content from the mobile devices would need to be pondered upon, it has also been observed that consumers who read eBooks (not replacing books) are consuming more books - Amazon Kindle users buying 3.3 times more books after owning a Kindle.

What are your thoughts and observations?


Look forward to hear from you,
Nelson Wee
engage with me at @nelsonwee

Reference links:
1. Is “stickiness” a thing of the past?
2. The Dog-Eared Paperback, Newly Endangered in an E-Book Age
3. Indian Smartphone Users moving towards Data, Games and Content, and Away From SMS
4. The ABCs of E-Reading (new devices are changing habits)