We all are aware of that tab-like device designed specifically to read e-books, but are you familiar with Migu? Obviously no, right? Well, Migu is just similar to Amazon’s e-book Kindle. China is the country where the use of Amazon is extremely stumpy.
Amazon has recently rolled out a tailored version of Kindle specially made for China. Available exclusively only in China the device operates much similar to other Kindle with only one customization; it lets user shop from Migu, a renowned e-book store operated by China Mobile, which is the largest telco in the country. Similar to Amazon, Migu also provides more than 400,000 titles. The Kindle for China with new reader comes with a free subscription to Amazon Prime free shipping, which the company introduced in China last year. Amazon started operating in China since 2004, at that time it took over the bookstore Joyo.com. The Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba’s Tmall has dominated the online e-commerce market for years in China.
Since 2013, Kindles are on sale in China and Amazon e-books are in market from 2012. It was the year when the company introduced an e-book platform only for China with domestic and international titles. But when asked regarding the total sale of Kindle devices in China, Amazon preferred not to respond.
Amazon aims for China are still complicated to understand; for both Kindle and retail division. China is the market where the existence of well-established players such as Alibaba, Tencent, IMDB-esque Douban, and JD doesn’t allow other players to play their cards. These players also have their individual e-book marketplaces, which provide an assortment of international and domestic titles.
A research also stated that the sale of e-reader devices have been reduced so far. In the early stage, when the devices were first introduced somewhere in 2011, about 23.2 Million e-reader devices were shipped in China, but the figure got minimized to 7.1 Million in 2016, as per a Chinese media source.
So what can work for Amazon is partnering with a state-owned company, China Mobile, to get its Kindle into the telco’s retail outlets. A small collaboration might be fruitful for the home-based telco too, in the case, if Amazon’s selling in China gets expanded.###
