Demand has grown for eBooks in the wake of Borders and Angus and Robertson collapsing, with eBook retailer Kobo announcing a 30% increase in site traffic.
“The mere fact that there is all this speculation whether eBooks had pushed REDgroup into administration drove a lot of people to look at eBooks,” Kobo Australia chief Malcolm Neil told Fairfax.
“We actually saw a huge sales spike in the couple weeks afterwards.”
Neil estimates that eBook retail sales represent about 3-4% of the total amount of books sold in Australia last year, resulting in total eBook revenue of between $42-52 million.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Patrick Stafford is a freelance journalist and a former deputy editor of SmartCompany.
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