Google Play Books Expands into Bulgaria, Croatia, Iceland, Slovenia, And Slovakia
Never one to rush into things, Google continued its steady expansion of Google Play Books this week by opening local ebookstores in Bulgaria, Croatia, Iceland, Slovenia, and Slovakia.
This is the first expansion in nearly 6 months, and brings the total number of countries to 70.
Update: Or maybe not. For some unknown reason Google has removed the 5 countries from the supported countries list. There are now 65 countries listed, and not 70.
If you live in one of the 5 countries, you can now buy ebooks from Google Play and either read them in the official app or download them with Adobe DE and transfer them to the Epub compatible ereader of your choice.
You also have the option of uploading your own PDF and Epub files to Google, and then downloading them and reading them in the official Google Play apps for iPad, Android, and iPhone (or in your web browser). Here’s how.
By my estimate, Google Play Books is one of the top 3 or 4 retail bookstores in the world, falling somewhere behind Kindle and iBooks and ahead of Nook, but that is just an estimate. Alas, no one is sharing actual revenue figures, so it’s the best we have.
Comments
Ebook Bargains UK March 20, 2015 um 2:57 am
The combined reach of Kobo and OverDrive library and retail outlets should put Rakuten up there amongst the top players this summer at a global level.
And presuming there are no contenders for Nook this summer, Rakuten-Kobo will no doubt mop up the Nook customer base too.
Nate Hoffelder March 20, 2015 um 7:45 pm
I’m surprised that Rakuten didn’t also pick up Nook, and demote B&N to a local partner.
DeeDee March 20, 2015 um 4:57 am
Weird. I’m in Bulgaria and the Google play books site still says "Not available in your country" and doesn’t let me install the app.
Nate Hoffelder March 20, 2015 um 7:27 am
Well, that’s interesting.
When I wrote this post last night there were 70 countries listed as having access to GPB (I counted). Now there are only 65, and you’re right. Bulgaria isn’t listed any more.
Daily Links: Netflix comes to Australia | The eBook Evangelist March 23, 2015 um 10:15 pm
[…] Google Play Books Expands into Bulgaria, Croatia, Iceland, Slovenia, And Slovakia (Ink, Bits & Pixels) […]