Upcoming e-books and traditional books : what are the challenges, threats and effects on the Dutch market?
Upcoming e-books and traditional books : what are the challenges, threats and effects on the Dutch market?
Samenvatting
The developments in the field of media, technology and business models are going faster and ensure that the publisher can choose from a wide range of publish possibilities.
As well private as in practice the consumer changes its search-, read- and buying motive. Companies within but also outside the publish world anticipate with new concepts, new business models and new technologies. E-books are at the moment well published by traditional bookstores, Centraal Boekhuis and of course e-companies.
In the first part of my thesis we will look at the breakthrough of e-books in general as well as in The Netherlands and the role of the publisher. E-books are already very popular in the US and are gaining popularity in The Netherlands. Bol.com launched an e-reader in cooperation with Sony. Within two weeks 1500 e-readers were sold an 2000 e-books, half a year later 63.000 e-books were sold an 14.000 e-readers. This is a very fast augmentation and shows that the Dutch market is accessible. By the advent of e-books the role of the publisher becomes less important. They are no longer responsible for the distribution and imprint of books. As we take these tasks out there's not much less.
In the second part I will show the dynamics on the e-book market such as the changing focus and e-books vs printed books. In this part I will show that the Dutch market is late with e-books due to lack of development and technology. Simply there was no offer of an e-reader in the Netherlands which makes it hard to sell e-books. Furthermore I will show that printed books still have a stronger position on the Dutch market compared to e-books. For this I have used a SWOT. If we compare the sales of digital books compared to printed/ paper books, we can conclude that there is yet nothing to fear. Yearly book stores sell over 50 million 'regular' books versus 60.000 e-books which are sold last year.
In the third part I will show what the Dutch publisher should do to be successful with e-books and internet use of people. They should leave their classic publish model behind and should focus on income model per segment. For instance pay per download. To show the online purchases and internet use of people, I have used CBS and Eurostat. It can be concluded that the group in the age of 20-25 is the biggest group which uses internet a lot and does the most purchases online.
To see the bargaining power of suppliers and customers and the threat of new products and substitute products of e-books I have used the 5 forces model of Porter. Also it shows the competitive rivalry within the industry. There is a lot of competition in this market, many bookstores and e-bookstores. There is not a true substitute products for e-readers or e-books it is both relatively new. Due to a lot of competition the power of the customer is bigger. They can choose of many different stores to go to.
The power of the supplier is less powerful due to the established book price.
In the last chapter there are different case studies to compare which way is the best to sell a book. E-bookstores or traditional bookstores. It shows that traditional bookstores should follow the latest developments in e-book and e-readers and that they should offer other products as CD's, DVD's and a restaurant. The traditional bookstores have personal contact. On the other hand e-stores can offer a wide range of products and get more income from niche markets. They can distinguish themselves in service such as returned goods.
To conclude for this moment traditional bookstores are still a very strong pioneer in the market but the up come of e-books could cause them a lot of trouble.
Organisatie | De Haagse Hogeschool |
Opleiding | ESC Europese Studies / European Studies |
Afdeling | Academie voor European Studies & Communication |
Jaar | 2010 |
Type | Bachelor |
Taal | Engels |