Wednesday, June 13, 2012

What will the global e-book market look like by 2016?


New data from Pricewaterhouse Coopers’ Global Entertainment and Media Outlook projects that e-books will make up 50 percent of the U.S. trade book market by 2016. What will happen in the rest of the world during that time? PwC gave paidContent an exclusive look at their e-book data, and here are some of their predictions.

Total book spending in the U.S. will be flat

PwC considers consumer and educational books together in the report, as well as breaking them out separately. Below, I focus on the consumer book data except where noted. Overall, the company sees total book spending in North America as relatively flat, “1.1 percent compound annual rate” of increase between 2011 and 2016 — and PwC thinks that while total spending on print trade books will decline, the e-book market will be growing fast enough by 2013 to offset those declines. In the U.S., the company estimates that “around 30 percent of adults had at least one portable reading device [an e-reader or tablet] in the first quarter of 2012.”
By 2016, PwC expects, “e-books will account for half of total spending on consumer books” in the U.S. and the total U.S. consumer book market (print + e-) will be worth $21 billion, up from $19.5 billion in 2011.
Full report at paidContent

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