Beyond Hardcovers & Paperbacks - Is Evolution Necessary? (All In! Young Writers Media Festival 2012)

With the opening of skoob, Singapore's 1st local eBook Store in November 2010, I, a self-professed book (print, digital and all) lover myself, have achieved my life-long ambition in opening a book store and entering the books business.  Awesome tick mark there!

It's also has been an honour for me to have been invited by the National Book Development Council of Singapore (NBDCS) for the 18 Feb opening keynote address for the All In! Young Writers Media Festival 2012, entitled "Beyond Hardcovers and Paperbacks - Is Evolution Necessary?" This event acts as a platform for young writers in Singapore from the ages of 16 (Secondary 4) to 25 (Junior College, ITE, Polytechnic, Tertiary institution), who are interested in writing and publishing (print, digital).

In my previous posts on the market trends on eBooks and digital publishing, I had started to put together about a number of related topics leading to my presentation:

• Consumer are buying time - time is a premium in today's time-starved marketplace
• How content consumption is going mobile - media consumption is changing as your mobile is near and personal
• 1-2-3 to the eBook market - where I introduced the eBooks growth trends, multi-screen consumption, opportunities as ancillary channels
• Why the Rise of eBooks (and opportunities to expand ancillary channels)? - where I discussed the promising market growth in eBook market regionally and in Singapore
• Introducing skoob, Singapore's 1st hyperlocal eBookstore - the launch of skoob
• Poll: Changing Reading Habits? - changing reading habits of American readers in today's e-reader age

Given the adoption of ebooks growing fast globally, the market landscape for content consumption has been transforming over the last couple of years with the advent of a myraid of mobile devices beyond the laptops and feature phones. In fact with today's "touch generation" and the increasing number of available options to access digital content (e.g. eBooks), today's on-the-go consumers are starting to go beyond printed books and consuming books via multiple screens and devices. As such, we start to see today's authors and content publishers starting to recognise the opportunities availed via mobile devices as ancillary channels to their target consumer segments - be where your audience will be.

(Extended version) Beyond hardcovers & paperbacks is evolution necessary? 1st Day Keynote at the All In! Young Writers Media Event 18 FEB 2012

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The 2 day event showcased a very engaging agenda, which included interesting topics from audience management with social media engagement to your content, new media creative writing experiences and techniques, to the final day closing panel around "Fate of the book stores - are death bells ringing for the brick and mortar book retailers".

I look forward to hear your comments on the eBook and e-reading market phenomena.


Talk soon,
Nelson Wee
@nelsonwee

Introducing skoob, Singapore's 1st hyperlocal eBookstore

The ebook market in Singapore is in its early stage of growth. From my previous 2 posts "1-2-3 to the eBook market" and "Why the rise of eBooks (and opportunities to expand ancillary channels)?", the ebooks market is seen to be gathering momentum globally and having an impact to the market here in Singapore.

The US is leading the charge in the market for ebooks globally (with the introduction of the Amazon Kindle), where according to a survey by BookStats on the US publishing industry, that:

• In 2008, ebooks comprise 0.6% (or US$156M)) of the total trade books market. Publishers made net revenue of ~US$26B in 2008.
• In 2010, this number grew to 6.4% of the total trade books market, or US$1.8B (sales of 114M ebooks). Publishers made net revenue of ~US$28B in 2010.

The PWC report on "the future of ebooks" projected that share of consumer books sales by ebooks will grow to more than 22% in 2015.


From the local Singapore context, there have been also encouraging signs on ebook take-up seen from the following reading habits of Singaporeans:

(1) Sales of books in Singapore (according to Datamonitor report) in 2008 is SGD $190M and to grow to $215M in 2011, $232M in 2013 (CAGR ’08-’13 of 4.1%).

(2) From the Singapore Journal of Library & Information Management,

• 27.5% of Singaporeans placed reading as their most preferred leisure time activity.
• While average reader in Singapore reads about 5 books a year, about 10% of readers do read more than 30 books a year.

(3) From an IDA study done in 2009 on infocomm access in households, it was gathered that the primary activity for ~3% of Internet users (110k out of total number of Internet users in Singapore, more than 3.7M) were on reading online magazines and electronic books.


To augment the above in terms of market potential, in Singapore, there are 3 more reasons why the eBooks or mobile books market is set to take off here in Singapore.

1. There is more than 145% in mobile penetration in Singapore (encompassing smartphones and tablets).
2. The vast majority of consumers here have data-enabled plans.
3. Many consumers here have multiple devices (smartphones, tablets) today.
   

Now with the launch of skoob, Singapore's 1st eBookstore (disclosure: I lead the team in the launch of skoob eBookstore), the eBook market in Singapore looks set to grow from strength to strength. And the below listed benefits for consumers celebrate this moving forward.

1. Firstly, skoob aims to meet the digital lifestyle needs of Singapore's increasingly on-the-go consumers with its multiplatform, multi-device stores. You could access skoob on your PC, Mac, laptops, iPads, Android Tablets, iPhones and Android smartphones! No more having to wait for your book to arrive at your door-step!
2. Furthermore with personal space being at a premium in Singapore, going digital is not only green but also frees up space in one’s living areas for other needs. With skoob, consumers here can also access, buy and download their eBook(s), each on up to 5 devices (PCs, Mac, laptops, iPads, iPhones, Android tablets, Android smartphones).
3. Previously, consumers in Singapore had to jump over many hoops to buy ebooks. To read ebooks on a Kindle for example, consumers had to order a Kindle via post (Kindle is not shipped directly to Singapore) and get an Amazon gift card or a US credit card to pay for the eBooks. Now with skoob, consumers in Singapore can buy eBooks from their PCs, laptops, tablets (iPad, Android) or smartphones (iPhones, Android) etc and pay via their Singapore local credit cards or via their monthly operator bill if they are SingTel mobile customers.
4. Previously, there was no local e-bookstore to cater to the tastes and needs of Singaporeans. But now with skoob, Singapore consumers can now get hold of more than 50,000 e-books from international bestsellers such as “A game of thrones” by George Martin or “Aleph” by Paulo Coelho to important sought after local content such as "Giants of Asia: Conversations with Lee Kuan Yew", Mr. Midnight series of children’s stories, and of course, the essential study and assessment guides from Popular Books.

I look forward to hear from you on your feedback on the eBook market trends in the world, Asia or even in Singapore and of course, your feedback on skoob as well. Never stop reading, whenever, whereever~


Later,
Nelson Wee
find me on Twitter as well

References:
1. CNet Asia - SingTel announces "skoob" eBook store in Singapore
2. Channel NewsAsia - Flip Skoob to read and study
3. ZDNet - Singapore telco offers country's first e-book app
4. AsiaOne - Singapore's first e-book service launched
5. The Register - SingTel launches e-reader
6. TODAY online - Too cool for Skoob

Why the Rise of eBooks (and opportunities to expand ancillary channels)?

In my previous post on the "1-2-3 to the eBook market", I discussed about:

1. how eBook adoption is growing fast globally
2. how ebooks could and are being consumed via multiple screen sizes and devices (i.e. PC, laptops, tablets and smartphones)
3. how eBooks and eMagazines could provide opportunities as ancillary channels (and revenues)

It's with no surprise that with the market trends and opportunities in digital publishing that we are seeing today globally (e.g. in the US, UK) that digitization of books and mobile consumption is on the rise in Asia Pacific as well.  In China, sales of digital content ran up sales of US$1B in 2009.  Annecdotally, I have heard from a China publisher (who deals in both print and digital eBooks in China) that sales of eBooks in China (including probably mobile comics) have grown to about SGD $200-300M - now, that's HUGE!

In Singapore, the market landscape is posturing nicely for digital publishing as well:

• with 3.7M Internet users,
• accompanying market growth in the mobile internet, with the proliferation of tablets, and smartphones rapidly replacing feature phones,
• 185k consumers or ~5% of all Singaporean Internet users, 15 years old and above have purchased eBooks, eMagazines or eNewspapers (source: IDA 2009 Infocomm survey of households).
• An average reader in Singapore will read up to 5 books a year whilst a heavy reader (10% of all readers) will read about 30 books a year.

It is hence with this market momentum that I have finally achieving my life-long ambition in being part of the launch of a book store, albeit an eBookstore here in Singapore (with my current employment in SingTel).  Have a look at the introduction video below on skoob at http://www.skoob.com.sg/ , probably Singapore's 1st eBookstore!

Look forward to hear your feedback. 

Til later, Nelson Wee
Connect with me on Twitter @nelsonwee

References:
1. Why Cell Phones will Dominate the E-Book Market in China?
2. My slideshare presentation on "How Digital Publishing Can Expand Ancillary Channels"

How Digital Publishing Can Expand Ancillary Channels

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