The Effect of Amazon and eBooks on the Singaporean Book Market

Eddy Teo — Thu, 31 May 2018 17:32:01 GMT

Current Revision posted to International by Eddy Teo on 5/31/2018 5:32:01 PM

No one can deny that Amazon has greatly impacted how consumers purchase goods, and books in particular, but as Penguin Books Singapore's Managing Director Eddy Teo explains, Amazon hasn't had as much of an impact on the book market in Singapore as it has had in other countries. Since Amazon's inception, Singaporeans have been able to purchase physical books from the online retailer, willing to wait several weeks to receive their goods from the US or Europe. Being able to purchase books from Amazon isn't new to Singaporeans, even though many in the book industry try to blame Amazon for their lackluster sales. The market for eBooks in particular in Singapore has been quite different from larger countries due to initial content restrictions that limited what Singaporeans could download to their devices. While the US and Europe saw triple digit growth when eBooks became popular, Singapore didn't "ride the Kindle wave", and eBook sales are currently stagnant. Teo believes that there is still a great appreciation in his country for the experience of reading a physical book.

www.authorlearningcenter.com/.../The-Effect-of-Amazon-and-eBooks-on-the-Singaporean-Book-Market.mp4

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