Friday, January 20, 2017

BPN: 1730 Dutch e-books and audiobooks: a good 4Q 2016

The Dutch book logistic company CB has released a new e-book barometer. The developments in the field of e-books in the Dutch language for the fourth quarter of 2016 have been illustrated in a infograph. A new feature in the barometer is the inclusion of the development of audio books and e-book subscriptions; both show a percentage growth in net sales. E-book sales and e-book lending continue to grow (resp. 13% and 47% compared to the fourth quarter of 2015). In addition, the growth of audio books has seen a 40% growth in net sales compared to the same quarter in 2015.

Subscription services new growth area 
In the e-book barometer CB now also provides insight into e-books through subscriptions. Net sales growth compared to the same quarter in 2015 runs up to 948%. Important to mention is that just before the end of 2015, the first subscription services hit the market.
Bruna bookstore chain was the first to launch the service Bliyoo in late 2015, which offers subscribers unlimited reading for € 9.95 per month. Another e-book subscription service Elly's Choice offers a monthly changing offer of ten e-books for € 2.99 per month. The library service contains 10,000 books, audio books and comic books.
Webshop Bol.com is also working on a subscription service whereby customers can borrow e-books from an online library for a fixed monthly amount. The service co-operates with e-reader maker Kobo in the development of the service. Speculation is that the subscription service will cost € 9.95 per month. It is unclear how large the global library will be and whether customers can borrow unlimited books. However, it is indicated that Bol.com hopes to attract 'several tens of thousands "of subscribers before the end of the year. 

Sources: CB press release and post Telegraaf.

(tick to enlarge infographic)





































Statistics 

E-book market 
46.614 e-book titles
- 43.872 e-book titles for sale
- 13.636 e-book titles for loan through libraries
- 11.943 e-book titles for subscription services
-   2.658 audio books

330 publishers
117 retailers 

User market 
1.850.000 e-readers
8.600.000 tablets
10.600.000 smart phones 

Growth 
1.       E-book sales up 13% in 4Q 2016; 9% over the last 12 months 
       -          E-book subscription sales up 948% in 4Q 2016
2.    E-book loans up 47% in 4Q 2016
3.    Audio books up 40% in 4Q 2016 

Analysis 
E-book titles are still growing.
E-book sales and e-book loans are still growing and teaming up in the same bandwidth.
E-book subscriptions are still a growth segment in the e-book market.
The number of e-book publishers and retailers is not growing.
The use of e-readers is still growing.
Tablets and smart phones are halting. 

 The stats are based on the infographic published by CB (in the Dutch language)