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Two-Thirds of Polish eBooks Users Use Kindles

Despite of hopes to the contrary,  Amazon has largely ignored the Polish ebook market. It has no local Kindle Store there, and doesn’t even support Polish as a language option in KDP.

A new survey suggests that may have been a mistake.

The research institute ARC Rynek i Opinia revealed earlier this year that 2/3 of ebook users in Poland use the Amazon Kindle., with Pocketbook and Poland’s own InkBook brand coming in distant second and third place (11% and 7%, respectively).

Kindle was by far the most popular hardware, but when it came to apps, iBooks tied with the Kindle app for first place, with Adobe DE finishing out the top 3 (21%, 21%, 17%).

The most common way to get an ebook was free from official sources (67%), followed by purchased (55%) and borrowed from a friend (40%). Those who do buy ebooks report that they mainly(90%) buy for themselves.

Mystery and crime novels were the most popular genre among Polish ebook readers, followed by fantasy, horror, and how-to books.

These survey results are based on a survey of 1107 Polish readers who had read at least three books in the past year. Around half (576) had read ebooks, and a quarter (306) had listened to an audiobook.

The survey was commissioned by Polish media retailer Virtualo, and can be downloaded from its website. This company sells Kindle format ebooks, and is one of several local retailers that moved into the Polish ebook market years ago when Amazon declined to do so.

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Comments


Carmen Webster Buxton August 10, 2017 um 2:57 pm

Oh, God! I can’t resist! Amazon and Warsaw are Poles apart!

Nate Hoffelder August 10, 2017 um 2:59 pm

boo

hiss

Carmen Webster Buxton August 10, 2017 um 5:20 pm

🙂


Mark Williams Int. August 11, 2017 um 4:47 am

A lot of these Kindle devices will be coming into the country via the UK, Germany, etc, where many Poles have migrated under EU freedom of movement rules, and are finding ereaders cheaper than back home.

Many Polish publishers offer ebook files in mobi format for this reason.

Nate Hoffelder August 11, 2017 um 10:46 am

Ah, so that’s where the hardware came from. I thought the Poles were ordering the kindles online.

Rosa August 12, 2017 um 2:40 pm

Amazon has been selling and sending kindles directly to Poland for about 7 years now. There’s need of travelling abroad to get one 🙂


Cyfranek August 11, 2017 um 5:47 am

Most of Polish bookstores offers sending purchadsed e-books in MOBI format using Send to Kindle service.


Two-Thirds of Polish eBooks Users Use Kindles | The Passive Voice | A Lawyer's Thoughts on Authors, Self-Publishing and Traditional Publishing August 11, 2017 um 11:20 am

[…] to the rest at The Digital Reader and thanks to Nate for the […]


Andy Brandt August 11, 2017 um 5:08 pm

It is worth noting that Amazon has also huge logistics centers in Poland servicing the EU, primarily Germany. Maybe Amazon’s management thinks Poles are just cheap workforce that can barely read shipping labels, but not read ebooks?


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