New Reports Chart the Rise of E-books

Publishers weekly reporting:

Two new reports released in the past 10 days document the e-book market’s rapid growth in the U.S. and the U.K., and suggest that a significant global spike is close at hand. Among the major takeaways from the “Bowker Market Research Global eBook Monitor” or GeM, study, e-books are beginning to show strong signs of life internationally, while in the U.S., the latest survey from the Pew Internet & American Life Project shows that one in five Americans now say they have read an e-book, and that e-book consumers read more books.

According to Bowker’s v-p of market research, Kelly Gallagher, the GeM data show that the two most developed e-book markets—the U.S. and the U.K.—are following a similar script. “It’s important to note the way in which the U.S. and U.K. markets have copied each other,” Gallagher said during a Webinar last week. “What we see in U.K. market is that they are where the U.S. was about two and a half to three years ago.”

That means the U.K. market is likely to see dramatic growth in the coming months. In the U.S., Gallagher pointed out, the e-book market took off in just a few short months—from October 2010 to January 2011—when e-books shot from 5% of the market to 13%, as the market in the U.K. was just getting started. “In the U.K. market, in December and January, we now see that same kind of hockey stick effect. So in the U.K. market, we see they are about a year behind the U.S. in terms of overall penetration into e-books.” The U.S. market, he added, has retreated from “exponential growth,” settling into more incremental growth, with e-books going from about 13% of the U.S. market to 19% in the past year.

The real action, meanwhile, looks to be in emerging new markets—especially India and Brazil. In all, the GeM study covered 10 countries, with Australia leading the way, with nearly 90% of the population using the Internet and 19% of the total population saying they have purchased an e-book. India, at the bottom, reported just 10% of the population online with 2% of the total Indian population having purchased an e-book. Still, India looks to be a major force, says Bowker’s Jo Henry, noting that India has a population of 1.2 billion, compared to 22 million in Australia, and that India has the greatest percentage of online users buying e-books in the survey. “Of the 10% of Indians online, 24% have purchased an e-book in the last six months,” Henry pointed out.
... Looking ahead, it gets even more interesting. When respondents were asked if they thought they would buy an e-book in the next six months, the data showed the more “mature” markets in Australia, the U.S., and U.K. could see growth as high as 50% over the remainder of 2012. “But we could see massive spikes in Brazil and India,” Henry observed.
http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/digital/retailing/article/51417-new-reports-chart-the-rise-of-e-books.html