Amazon’s Kindle India eBook business grows over 200% year-on-year

Wired

Amazon has announced that its Kindle business in India grew over 200% year on year. With over 3 million eBooks available for download, the Kindle India store offers a large selection of titles from Indian and global authors including exclusive availability of all titles of Chetan Bhagat and Rupa Publications as eBooks.

Wired

 

With the vision of making every book ever written available to readers within 60 seconds, it is still day one for Kindle in India. Kindle devices as well as a large collection of eBooks are among the top gifts during the ongoing holidays in India. Here’s the year in review for eBook lovers:

eBook Collection

  • Launch of Kindle Unlimited in India: Building on the success of eBook growth, Kindle Unlimited launched in September. Customers can freely read as much as they want from over one million Kindle books starting from ₹150 a month. It is a great way for all readers to enjoy books across genres of literature, fiction, health, productivity, business & economics, biographies, children books and many more including bestsellers and new releases available at an affordable price.
  • Amazon also offers the entire set of 370+ titles from Lonely Planet through Kindle Unlimited. Readers now have the flexibility of downloading a targeted title when they travel to a particular country.
  • Amazon partnered with Indian publishers like Rupa, Arihant, Westland, Orient, Grapevine, Jaico, and Srishti Publishers for thousands of Indian titles across genres. These include works from authors such as Amish Tripathi, Preeti Shenoy, and Robin Sharma.

Top Kindle Exclusives

  • Prior to the launch of Amish Tripathi’s new book ‘Scion of Ikshvaku’, Amazon announced an exclusive sneak-peek. For the first time ever, readers were able to access a chapter from the book before its official launch.
  • In August, Amazon announced exclusive eBook rights to all of Chetan Bhagat’s titles including his new book, ‘Making India Awesome’.

Enhancing the overall Kindle Experience

  • Expansion of payment options: In March this year, Kindle announced additional payment options through local credit cards, debit cards, net banking and Amazon.in gift cards for purchases on the India Kindle Store.
  • Kindle Reading app pre-loaded in a several popular devices like One Plus, Sony, and Micromax.
  • Launch of Kindle Voyage: Kindle Voyage – the thinnest, most advanced Kindle ever, featuring a higher resolution, higher contrast display with a new adaptive front light and reimagined page turns was launched in March this year at the Amazon India Fashion Week. It is the most advanced eReader ever, crafted to offer the best reading experience.
  • Launch of the New Kindle Paperwhite: In June, Amazon updated its most popular and best-selling Kindle globally with the highest resolution Paperwhite display, the exclusive Kindle font Bookerly and a new typesetting engine for a crisp & beautiful reading experience.
  • Launch of Kindle in White: In November this year, Amazon introduced its Kindle in White.

Availability

  • Expansion of offline channels: Kindle aggressively expanded its offline sales channel this year and is now available in over 700 offline stores including Croma, Reliance Digital, E-Zone & Vijay Sales across 23 cities.

 

Commenting on the rapid growth of eBooks in India, Sanjeev Jha, Director – Kindle Content, Amazon said, “We are excited by the response of Indian customers to Kindle. Our eBooks business is growing over 200% year-on-year, and eBooks are quickly becoming a large part of our book business in India.”

Over the last year, Amazon has significantly added to its selection by adding content from Indian publishers such as Rupa, Westland, Orient, Grapevine, Jaico, and Srishti Publishers. Today, thousands of Indian titles across several categories are available to readers on the India Kindle Store, including works from authors such as, Amish Tripathi, Preeti Shenoy, Robin Sharma, Chetan Bhagat, Sudeep Nagarkar, Ramachandra Guha, Rashmi Bansal, Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam etc. Readers get to enjoy over 500,000 books priced at INR 99 or less and over 1.5 million books priced at INR. 299 or less, making Kindle India’s most loved eReading destination.

About Amazon.com

Amazon.com opened on the World Wide Web in July 1995. The company is guided by four principles: customer obsession rather than competitor focus, passion for invention, commitment to operational excellence, and long-term thinking. Customer reviews, 1-Click shopping, personalized recommendations, Prime, Fulfillment by Amazon, AWS, Kindle Direct Publishing, Kindle, Fire tablets, Fire TV, Amazon Echo, and Alexa are some of the products and services pioneered by Amazon.

 

About Shakthi

I am a Tech Blogger, Disability Activist, Keynote Speaker, Startup Mentor and Digital Branding Consultant. Also a McKinsey Executive Panel Member. Also known as @v_shakthi on twitter. Been around Tech for two decades now.

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