Talks of Amazon’s newest online distribution branch into foreign territory would mean a gateway into a new catalog of foreign language titles, along with the opportunity to reach out into the South American book market without having to take on costly overhead, development of property, and the frustrations of a whole new tax system.
While critics like to point fingers at the online retailer for its takeover-the-world approach to sales, Brazilian readers stand to benefit from the alleged digital-only Amazon storefront, as the current book selling setup costs consumers dearly in terms of heavy import tariffs on books from other countries.
If the rumors of Amazon’s all-digital venture into Brazil are true, with some sources saying these plans are expected to be fully underway by this fall, the ebook distributor would join the likes of Netflix and AirBnB on the list of companies that are quickly expanding into Brazil to take advantage of a growing economy of consumers with money to spend online.
While Brazilian consumers currently only account for 1% of traffic to Amazon.com according to an article for TheGlobeandMail.com, Amazon traffic from England was only just over 2% of retail sales when the launch of a dedicated Amazon for the UK was established. Germany, the first foreign language Kindle market, was at just over 1% as well when it launched.
Brazilian consumers would join the ranks of other foreign language Kindle users if this plan goes forward, and would welcome the development of Amazon’s Portuguese enabled e-reader. Meanwhile, other companies are already following suit with plans of their own so as to be ready to compete with the online powerhouse should a Brazilian ebook market prove lucrative.
Mercy Pilkington is a Senior Editor for Good e-Reader. She is also the CEO and founder of a hybrid publishing and consulting company.
