There are hundreds of digital bookstores all over the world and the purpose of our research is to determine the most popular. Over the course of the last two weeks 364 people cast their vote and today we would like to share our results.
Amazon currently controls 75% of the e-book market in the US and 95% in the United Kingdom. These are staggering figures that really shows how little market penetration Barns and Noble and Kobo actually have. Our research shows that 57% of our audience prefers the Kindle ecosystem, capturing 211 votes.
Kobo has been in the e-reader game for as long as Barnes and Noble and is likely the largest book ecosystem in the world. They have almost 4 million titles and the company prides itself on accessibility. Their complete line of e-readers and vibrant bookstore obviously resonates with our audience, as 18.41% said they preferred to do business with them.
These two bookstores account for 76% of the total vote, which really shows how much market penetration they actually have. Things dramatically tapered off in all of the other positions with B&N capturing 6% of the vote, directly from the publisher (4%), indie bookstores (3%) and iBooks, Google Books and Pottermore remain irrelevant.
It is very surprising that Apple and Google basically only had 10 votes each. Considering both of their digital bookstores are preloaded on every new smartphone and tablet they sell, it is apparent that the average consumer simply doesn’t do business with iBooks or Google Books.
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.