E-books Market in India 2012

India has been hailed as a prospective market for books, a derivative of the passion in people for reading. E-book, the digital format of book, was an unknown area to tread even two years back in the country. But, as new technology creates new readers, technology enthusiasts began to opt for e-books and read them on a regular basis. As the advent of e-books become more prominent in India, publishers and readers wonder whether if the era of physical, paper books is drawing to a close. Touted as a tech marvel, e-readers along with the recent addition of smartphones and tablets, have emerged as the supporting platforms that work in conjunction with e-books.

The report begins with an introduction of the concept of e-books and is presented with the evolution of e-books. It is followed by a value chain analysis of the product. The report then proceeds towards an overview of the global market for e-books and provides the market size and growth along with a split of the market share constituted by different players. It is followed by an overview of the Indian e-books market that is aided with a market size and growth, a market segmentation based on the type as well as a geography-based revenues split. The next part deals with the benefits associated with e-books and then moves on to providing a comparative study between print and e-books. The next section throws light on the market highlights which speaks about the Indian market as well as the global market. It also provides a snapshot on the digital revenues earned by leading players across the global arena. Formats and software for e-books is provided which forms the concluding part of this section.

Brief descriptions of the drivers that help the sector to prosper include growth in education, increase in internet users, demographical alterations, increase of internet enabled computing devices, improvised content and publishers save costs in this format. Books will find its takers only when the literacy rate of population is healthy. Increase in the number of internet users has a close link with the growth of e-books as the product can be bought only through internet. Factors like demographical alterations affect positively as the youth take interest in trying out new innovative products and become more tech-savvy. Another stimulant that works for this sector is the availability of internet enabled computing devices like smartphones and tablets along with e-readers that form the supporting platforms for reading e-books. Improvised content in the likes of multimedia enriched content, audio and video add-ons create that stir which attracts readers. Finally, publishers opt for this format as they save a lot of costs and manage to gain in the long run. While these factors can be termed as growth drivers there are certain factors that act as impediments to the sector including negative consumer perspective related to cyber security & piracy, high prices of e-book readers, majority focus on academic text books and lack of touch and feel element.

This is followed by a section that speaks about the Government participation in the sector which caters to FDI policy, the impact of FDI on e-tailing firms and The Copyright (Amendment) Bill, 2010.

The major trends identified in the sector include application approval from Apple, retail chain offering e-book reading application, drive to convert books into digital formats, foreign giant setting stores in India, technological add-ons, digital rights management and sports category emerges as a thriving option. The section ends with a Porter's Five Forces analysis of the sector.

The competition section offers a competitive landscape of the players by providing their financials and key financial ratios. It also provides basic information regarding the organizations. Key financial parameters constitute the financial performances of the players which are followed by business highlights. A brief description is also rendered about the devices that form the supporting platforms for e-books wherein product specifications and features are provided along with a brief snapshot of the company that manufactures the product.

The report concludes with a section on strategic recommendations which comprises an analysis of the growth strategies of the e-book market in India.