The Amazon UK website has quietly been testing an ebook gifting system. This will allow users to purchase an ebook and gift to another person, as long as you have their email address. There are further options to establish a date in which the email will be sent and a little room for a custom message. The ebook gifting system has only been available in the US, since it launched in 2010.
Over the course of the past few days UK customers who buy ebook for themselves have told Good e-Reader that they have seen the gifting option for select titles. Sometimes they appear for a few hours and then are removed again. Some of the books were by authors who are enrolled in the KDP program and others belong to large publishing houses. So the gifting system is going to be covering a wide spectrum of content. Title availability may vary by country and copyright restriction when it goes live.
Amazon has not disclosed yet to Good e-Reader when this new system will go live, but I heard it is going to go live on Friday December 7th.
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.
