The Brazilian Digital PathAn overview of e-book development in a BRICS country

Bra·zil | \brə-ˈzil\A former football nation.

Carnival, caipirinhas and sunny beaches still available.

Carlo Carrenho | Digital Technology Summit | Pretoria, South AfricaMarch 18th, 2015

General Facts About Brazil

Population: 202 million (5th in the world)

Area: 8,5 mi km² (5th in the world)

GNP: US$ 2.246 trillion (5th in the world)

Language: Portuguese (Only!)

Number of Nobel Prizes: None, Zero, Nada

Number of Soccer World Cup Championships: 5 (Five)!!!

The Book Market (2013)

Market at consumer “cover” prices: US$ 3.09 bi

Total publishers revenue : US$ 2.27 bi

Government purchases: US$ 625 million

Government share: 27.5%

K-12 share: Over 50%

Digital share in the trade market: 3,5% (2014)

10th largest book market in the world according to Ruediger Wischenbart’s The Global Map of Publishing Markets

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An One-language Book Market

Only 4,59% of booksellers revenues in Brazil came from foreign books in 2014 according to Nielsen.

Foreign language titles sold in Brazilian bookstores add to roughly a US$ 80 million per year, n consummer prices, which is less than 3% of the market.

Portuguese is a huge entry barrier.

“As for beach reading, that is something I didn’t see much of in

Brazil. And the fact is: when you have so much natural beauty to sightsee, when it comes to reading books, and

your brain is half-melted from the heat, why bother?”

Ed Nawotka,Publishing Perspectives

Brazilians read four books per year on average

Half of them are for school purposes

Half of them are only partially read

Few heavy readers

Reading Habits

Digital Cronology

Dec. 2009: Gato Sabido, the 1st Brazilian eBook retailer starts its operation

June 2010: Saraiva launches its e-Bookstore

Oct. 2012: Apple opens its Brazilian iBookstore

Dec. 2012: Amazon, Google and Kobo launch their e-Bookstores in Brazil

Feb. 2014: Amazon starts shipping the Kindle from their own warehouse

Aug. 2014: Saraiva launches its dedicated e-Reader, the LEV

Aug. 2014: Amazon starts selling print books

The Resistance

2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 -

5,000

10,000

15,000

20,000

25,000

30,000

35,000

40,000

45,000

50,000

4,900

9,000

16,000

35,000

47,000

Smartphone Sales in BrazilTh

ousa

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f Uni

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2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 -

2,000

4,000

6,000

8,000

10,000

12,000

100

800

3,100

7,900

10,700

Tablet Sales in BrazilTh

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f Uni

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Can the dedicated eReader samba?

The Digital Growth

The Digital Growth

2012 2013 20140.00%

0.50%

1.00%

1.50%

2.00%

2.50%

3.00%

3.50%

4.00%

0.50%

2.50%

3.50%

Digital share of trade copies sold in Brazil

The Aggregator Factor

The Government Factor

TAXES: Government hasn’t yet decided if eBooks are tax free or not. Dedicated eReaders are still imported as tablets.

LEGAL: Nobody can tell if the Agency Model is legal or not in Brazil.

Trade Hits and Misses

The industry managed to negotiate fair terms with Amazon

The industry failed to produce an efficient and extensive aggregator

The industry and government failed to update the tax and anti-trust legislation to cover the eBook developments.

“Everything is all right in

the end. It it isn’t all right,

it isn’t yet the end.BRAZILIAN MOTTO FOR LIFE

The Educational Tablet

Launched in 2012

600,000 tablets

US$ 75 million

Delivered in 2014

Neglected “minor”detail: EDITORIAL CONTENT

The Textbook National Program (PNLD)

Managed by the Ministry of Education

29 million students

103 million copies

US$ 530 million

Roughly 90% of government purchases

The Digital Progress at PNLD

The School LibrariesPU

BLIS

HER

S SCHO

OLS

Education Hits and Misses

The government has started to experiment with digital

Huge lack of planning and dialogue between government and industry. The Ministry of Education doesn’t make definitions

Publishers depend on third companies to reach city schools digitally.

Publishers found a way to reach the universties through a joint platform

1st KEY WORD: LANGUAGE

2nd KEY WORD: DIALOGUE

Carlo CarrenhoPublishing Consultant | Trade Journalist

Co-author of Global eBook Report (www.global-ebook.com)

carrenho@gmail.com | @carrenho

Thank you!

It is time for Brazilto try a new sport

Dankie!

Ngiyathokoza!

Ke a leboha!

Ke a leboga!

Siyabonga!

Inkomu!

Ndo livhuwa!

Ro livhuwa!

Enkosi!

Ngiyabonga!