Why ereaders succeeded in the US but not Japan

[fjtorres]

From the LONDON SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS:

http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/businessrevie...-not-in-japan/

The concept of disruptive innovation has captured the attention of executives around the world. As explained by Clayton Christensen, a disruptive innovation is initially seen as unattractive by mainstream customers and by the leading firms who serve those customers. Eventually, however, those firms lose their leadership positions to new entrants who are willing to develop and improve the innovation in ways that make it more attractive to mainstream customers.

One intriguing example of a bundled disruptive innovation is the e-reader. Many American consumers responded enthusiastically to Amazon’s introduction of the Kindle reader in 2007, in part because, in a relatively short amount of time Kindle customers were able to choose from hundreds of thousands of titles. In contrast, Japanese e-readers introduced both before and after the U.S. Kindle launch received a lukewarm response from Japanese consumers.

One obvious explanation was the relative lack (compared to the US) of best-selling novels and other popular books in e-book form. To try and understand the reasons for the disparity in e-book availability between the U.S. and Japan, we interviewed key figures from both the American and Japanese book industry. Our research revealed a number of interesting insights, which we organise into three categories: organisational, environmental and technological factors.

Technological factors

One example of a technological factor that influenced consumer adoption decisions was the existence of two incompatible file formats, both designed to accommodate unique aspects of written Japanese. As a result, files designed to be read on a Sony e-reader could not be read on a Sharp e-reader and vice-versa. This incompatibility decreased the perceived value of e-readers for many Japanese consumers.

Not sure about that one. Maybe on top of the other issues.

More at the source and associated technical paper.

[Penforhire]

I think they missed a significant technological factor. Japan was crazy for advanced (a.k.a. smart) cellular phones. I will bet many Japanese chose to read content on their phones rather than buy a dedicated e-reader.

[frahse]

Originally Posted by Penforhire

I think they missed a significant technological factor. Japan was crazy for advanced (a.k.a. smart) cellular phones. I will bet many Japanese chose to read content on their phones rather than buy a dedicated e-reader.

Yes. Many Asians use their phones instead of computers or tablets as well.
Young people in the US are similar.

I have at hand all the devices. I use a land land (actually U-Verse VOIP ) at home because of superior sound - Dect 6.0, etc., a Verizon tower flip phone for my primary cell phone, a Freedom Pop smart phone (on Sprint) for weather (maps, stocks, etc.) a Chrome book for everyday browsing and Stock Market following, an old giant desktop for graphics, Engineering, writing, printing. I have an expensive tablet but seldom use it. The tablet and my Kindle have more or less been ceded to my wife, who has every kind of device made and uses every one of them every day.

Oh yes, let us not forget Alexa (Amazon Echo!)

... and also a stand (dirve) -alone GPS which is better than the phone.

[ReadingManiac]

Originally Posted by Penforhire

I think they missed a significant technological factor. Japan was crazy for advanced (a.k.a. smart) cellular phones. I will bet many Japanese chose to read content on their phones rather than buy a dedicated e-reader.

That's a good point. I can't imagine the Japanese bypassing a technology innovation, but with phones and tablets, e-readers could be superfluous.

Personally I like the screen on my Paperwhite much better than on any other device.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by ReadingManiac

That's a good point. I can't imagine the Japanese bypassing a technology innovation, but with phones and tablets, e-readers could be superfluous.

Personally I like the screen on my Paperwhite much better than on any other device.

Oh, eink devices sell in Japan.
They just haven't impacted the local publishing industry as much as in the US/UK.
Kindles and Kobos sell reasonably well, enough to support local stores, but in the Kindle's case a fair amount of sales seem to be to gain access to western books at reasonable prices.

[Pajamaman]

One example of a technological factor that influenced consumer adoption decisions was the existence of two incompatible file formats, both designed to accommodate unique aspects of written Japanese. As a result, files designed to be read on a Sony e-reader could not be read on a Sharp e-reader and vice-versa. This incompatibility decreased the perceived value of e-readers for many Japanese consumers.

And yet Sony is now defunct, and Kobo is selling books in Australia and Canada despite the Amazon dominance.

[crich70]

I think one possible reason why ereaders didn't sell as well in Japan is the alphabet. Japanese uses some fairly complex characters rather than the Latin alphabet that we use here in the west. I wager (even though English is taught there) that most writing (both non fiction and fiction) is in Japanese. Not all languages are equally easy to represent i using eink technology.

[pwalker8]

Another thing to consider is that graphics is huge is Japan. Many read Manga rather than plain text. In general, the eInk displays just don't do a very good job with graphics.

[GlenBarrington]

This is more of a question than a statement. But my impression of the "e" publishing industry is that it is far more popular in the English speaking countries than it is in countries that speak/read/write something else.

Is that true? And if so, could there be a linguistic and cultural component to this? It would be interesting to hear from people who live in multilingual countries if there is a difference in support between the various languages.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by GlenBarrington

This is more of a question than a statement. But my impression of the "e" publishing industry is that it is far more popular in the English speaking countries than it is in countries that speak/read/write something else.

Is that true? And if so, could there be a linguistic and cultural component to this? It would be interesting to hear from people who live in multilingual countries if there is a difference in support between the various languages.

Linguistic? Dunno.
But cultural, absolutely.

Reading for entertainment is not a universal custom, even among affluent societies. It has, however, been common in the US/UK since the early 19th century with their history of Penny Dreadfuls, Story Papers, and Dime novels. They were all steps towards the pulps of the early 20th and, eventually, paperbacks. Now ebooks are moving to fill the market for affordable prose entertainment.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penny_dreadful
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Story_paper
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dime_novel
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulp_magazine

In many countries, though, prose has traditionally been dominated primarily by literary prose and reading for entertainment isn't as ingrained in the popular culture and thus the content isn't as common. Chicken and egg. Without a tradition of native popular prose there is little incentive for local writers to produce popular prose and without a ready supply of content the habit doesn't spread.

In more recent times, the niche of affordable entertainment has been filled via TV dramas, particularly in latin america:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telenovela

And of course, in more recent times competition for eyeball-hours (and consumer spending) has expanded to include video games and online social media (gossip).

Even in countries with a long history of popular prose, reading for entertainment has been on a long, steady decline going back 50 years and more. It's not all due to TV, though. Changing publisher policies have had a lot to do with it, too, which is one of the factors the OP paper looks into.

It's not a simple issue by any means.

[Pajamaman]

I agree it's a language issue. Consider the lack of Amazon dominance in Germany and Europe.

Also Manga on a small e-reader just ain't great. Interestingly Amazon have produced a Manga-friendly Kindle for Japan. But at 6" it's pointless. I imagine the smallest that would work okay would be 9.7"

[crich70]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

Linguistic? Dunno.
But cultural, absolutely.

Reading for entertainment is not a universal custom, even among affluent societies. It has, however, been common in the US/UK since the early 19th century with their history of Penny Dreadfuls, Story Papers, and Dime novels. They were all steps towards the pulps of the early 20th and, eventually, paperbacks. Now ebooks are moving to fill the market for affordable prose entertainment.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penny_dreadful
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Story_paper
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dime_novel
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulp_magazine

In many countries, though, prose has traditionally been dominated primarily by literary prose and reading for entertainment isn't as ingrained in the popular culture and thus the content isn't as common. Chicken and egg. Without a tradition of native popular prose there is little incentive for local writers to produce popular prose and without a ready supply of content the habit doesn't spread.

In more recent times, the niche of affordable entertainment has been filled via TV dramas, particularly in latin america:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telenovela

And of course, in more recent times competition for eyeball-hours (and consumer spending) has expanded to include video games and online social media (gossip).

Even in countries with a long history of popular prose, reading for entertainment has been on a long, steady decline going back 50 years and more. It's not all due to TV, though. Changing publisher policies have had a lot to do with it, too, which is one of the factors the OP paper looks into.

It's not a simple issue by any means.

In fact two things I understand brought pulp to a close. First there was the shortage of paper during WWII as it was needed for military use. Many pulp magazines folded during the war. Then after the war I understand the pulp evolved into the paperback. There are still a few magazines around but many writer's went to writing books which were brought out as paperbacks. Probably they made more money per sale of a paperback than they would by serial installments of a book in a magazine.

And after WWII there was competition in the form of the (still quite new) interest in TV. Movie theater's had the same problem. It's one big reason why many outdoor theater's closed their doors and at least some indoor ones too probably. Why pay admission to see a movie if by waiting you can see it on TV for free?

The paperback probably made sense for the consumer as well. I mean say a pulp magazine was .25 a copy and the story you wanted to read was spread out over 6 issues. That comes to $1.50 you have to spend to read the whole thing. And there was the danger of missing an issue as well. A paperback was probably about the same price .25 -.50 maybe (I don't know for sure though older paperback books do seem to have been very cheaply priced) and you got the whole story in one place.

[crich70]

Originally Posted by Pajamaman

I agree it's a language issue. Consider the lack of Amazon dominance in Germany and Europe.

Also Manga on a small e-reader just ain't great. Interestingly Amazon have produced a Manga-friendly Kindle for Japan. But at 6" it's pointless. I imagine the smallest that would work okay would be 9.7"

I've tried to navigate an graphic novel or comic on a kindle. It isn't easy. Plain text is a lot more workable on ereaders. Eventually they may improve the technology to be able to handle such easier but it will be a while yet I think. And probably the first that really work well for it will be expensive just as the first ereaders were. I mean now you can find a Kindle for as low as $50.00 at Amazon I believe but when they first came out they were hundreds of bucks. The same with other media like TV sets. Back in the 1950's winning a TV set on a game show was a big deal because they were fairly expensive and people had to save for quite a while to buy one. Later they went down a lot, so did the VCR and then the DVD player. New technology is always expensive at first. I imagine the first printed books (while cheaper to make than hand copied volumes) were still somewhat expensive too. At least relative to the level of income that many people had back then.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by crich70

. There are still a few magazines around but many writer's went to writing books which were brought out as paperbacks. Probably they made more money per sale of a paperback than they would by serial installments of a book in a magazine.

.

Depending on the genre there were more slots for paperback originals than for magazines. On the flip side, magazines paid less because they demanded less; just first print rights.

[crich70]

And they were paying by the word for those first rights. After that the author didn't receive more but with a book you get quarterly payments for your work.