As can be inferred from the data for the sector, since 2008 the Russian publishing industry has entered a delicate phase due to an economic downturn. However, electronic publishing projects do not appear to have suffered the same impact and although very little news about the Russian digital industry reaches Europe and the US, some [...]
Presentation
Technical data
Surface area: 17,075,400 km2 Population: 141,850,000 (2009) Urban population: 72.8% (2009) Language: There are about 160 different ethnic groups that speak around 100 languages. Russian is the only official language, but the Constitution grants the republics of the Russian Federation the right to declare native languages co-official. GDP: US$ 1,230,725,856,403 (2009) GDP per capita: US$ [...]
Online stores (selling copies)
As an initial approach, it is important to recognize that within Russia there are a significant number of websites dedicated to the sale of books, in both paper and electronic format. Founded in 1998 in Saint Petersburg, the company Ozon began by selling paper books – just like Amazon. It now covers a wide selection of [...]
Subscription stores
In addition to portals selling individual copies, Russia has numerous websites that base their business models on subscriptions. First of all, we should mention Bookmate, an online reading club whose users can read e-books by paying a monthly subscription fee of 99 roubles, or just over 3 dollars. The site, which was designed by three [...]
Digital distributors
Public sales portals are supplied by the publishers themselves or by digital distributors. One of the best-known players in the field of e-book distribution in Russia is Litres. Founded in 2006 through a merger between different portals and then acquired by Eksmo, this aggregator and seller of electronic books began with just 90 titles and [...]
Free access virtual libraries
In addition to these retail stores and commercial distributors, we find numerous first-rate libraries that make their backlists available to the public in digital format. Some sources claim that there are no less than 400 official electronic libraries in Russia, without counting the privately-run portals.[1] In this regard we must highlight the efforts made by [...]
E-readers and other local devices
If, as we have seen, there is considerable activity taking place in online platforms – stores, distributors and libraries –, then we must acknowledge that the hardware industry displays even greater vigour. In addition to the aforementioned Ozon Galaxy or iChitalka, dozens of e-readers are manufactured in Russia and sold in both the domestic market and abroad, [...]
Print on demand
In comparison with the progress made by electronic platforms and hardware companies, a technology like POD is still very much in the background. Nevertheless, some firms in the sector have begun to back this new modality. In October 2010, the third annual “On Demand Russia” exhibition was held in Moscow and the event enabled dozens [...]
Publishers in the face of the digital revolution
So, given the profusion of software, hardware and digital business models, what is happening in the case of Russian publishers? According to Prohorenkov, the relative scarcity of content for new mediums is a bad sign: We are not having much success with digital content. Publishers are afraid of illegal copies and don’t target the market [...]
The advantages of digital, in spite of everything
Technology and the Web are advancing at such a speed in Russia that they appear to exceed the possibilities of traditional publishers. However, it is clear that digital could represent a significant qualitative leap in this country with regard to the distribution of written content. Russian publishing has always faced an obvious obstacle: the problem [...]
Possible trends
Although as yet there are no digital business models in Russia that can entirely supplant the traditional system, there are forces that could accelerate the migration of the industry: Sooner or later the economic crisis that has plagued the book sector since 2008 will lead publishers to reduce print runs and seek new and more [...]