World Catching Up to U.S. in E-Book Buying Habits, Study Says

By Jeremy Greenfield, Editorial Director, Digital Book World, @JDGsaid


The world has caught up with the U.S. when it comes to e-book buying and overall engagement with digital books, according to a new study.
While the U.S. remains the largest e-book market, many readers in countries like Australia, Brazil and India have purchased e-books and intend to buy more in the future, according to R.R. Bowker’s Global eBook Monitor study.
“The world is ready for digital books and it’s a far bigger marketplace than we thought,” said Kelly Gallagher, vice president of publishing services at Bowker.
In late January and early February, Bowker fielded a 25-question online survey among 1,000 to 2,000 people in each of ten countries – Australia, Brazil, France, Germany, India, Japan, South Korea, Spain, the UK and the U.S. – asking them about their reading and book-buying habits.
Australia, India, the UK and the U.S. led the world in e-book adoption rates but Brazil and India may represent the best opportunities for publishers to sell e-books in the future.
Of survey respondents who indicated that they had never downloaded and purchased an e-book, only 16% of Brazilians and 11% of Indians said they would not try one.
Compare that with 66% of French and 72% of Japanese people who said they had not tried e-books and did not want to try them.
Cultural reasons for not wanting to transition to e-books could be the culprit in places like France and Japan, where the technology for e-reading is widespread, but the adoption is low
 and attitudes toward e-reading are relatively negative.  Full story.