03-07-2017, 03:22 PM | #1 | |||
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Why ereaders succeeded in the US but not Japan
From the LONDON SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS:
http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/businessrevie...-not-in-japan/ Quote:
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More at the source and associated technical paper. |
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03-08-2017, 12:32 PM | #2 |
Wizard
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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.
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03-10-2017, 08:08 PM | #3 | |
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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. Last edited by frahse; 03-14-2017 at 07:46 PM. |
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03-11-2017, 07:32 AM | #4 | |
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Personally I like the screen on my Paperwhite much better than on any other device. |
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03-11-2017, 09:28 AM | #5 | |
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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. |
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03-11-2017, 09:59 AM | #6 | |
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03-11-2017, 09:20 PM | #7 |
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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.
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03-12-2017, 09:14 AM | #8 |
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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.
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03-12-2017, 01:56 PM | #9 |
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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. |
03-13-2017, 08:14 AM | #10 | |
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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. |
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03-13-2017, 09:54 AM | #11 |
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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" |
03-15-2017, 01:57 PM | #12 | |
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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. |
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03-15-2017, 02:04 PM | #13 | |
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03-15-2017, 02:21 PM | #14 |
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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.
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03-15-2017, 11:00 PM | #15 |
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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.
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