Amazon.com,Inc. (AMZN) Opens Kindle Store In China, Hints Of Arrival

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Amazon.com,Inc. (AMZN) Opens Kindle Store In China, Hints Of Arrival

Amazon.com,Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) inaugurated a Kindle store in China, the company revealed on Thursday. The store will sell Chinese electronic books for the mobile Kindle application.

The launch of the store could provide the opening for a launch of Amazon.com,Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN)’s Kindle device. Billy Huang, Amazon.com,Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN)’s spokesman refused to comment on whether (or when) the Kindle device would be sold in China. In June, Amazon.com,Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN)’s four Kindle models, including the Kindle Touch and Kindle Fire and one Kindle Keyboard, were granted authorization from the State Radio Regulation of China, the regulatory body for radio and wireless products.

As of now Hanwang technology Co LTD ‘A’CNY1 (SHE:002362) e-reader and Shanda Interactive Entertainment Ltd ADR (NASDAQ:SNDA)’s Barnbook are the two giants, which dominate China’s e-reader market, but there are some Chinese consumers who buy e-reader from overseas. Amazon.com,Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN)’s Kindle will face competition from E-commerce China Dangdang Inc (ADR) (NYSE:DANG) and 360 buy, both of whom sell e-books.

“It seems like there is pent-up demand for Amazon.com,Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN)’s Kindle,” said Mark Natkin, managing director of Beijing-based technology firm Marbridge Consulting. “Amazon.com,Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) is a well-regarded brand both in terms of the quality of its products and in terms of its service,” Natkin said.

Along with the Amazon.com,Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN)’s Kindle iPhone and iPad app launched in the Chinese App store, the Android version is also available for download from Amazon.com,Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN)’s website: this is the strongest hint of that Kindle will soon be arriving in China, something which has been long speculated for more than a year now.

There are many Chinese e-books in the new Kindle store on Amazon.com,Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN), but the section is not connected to the international Kindle selection yet. The company declared a selection of “tens of thousands” books on its websites.

Amazon’s online retail business performed well in China, but could not grab the dominant position like it holds in U.S.A.E-books already hold the market in China, and are quite popular among the customers there. So it could be an advantage to Amazon’s Kindle. It may also fetch massive revenue given the huge potential customer base in the world’s largest country by population.

Amazon is extending its Kindle platform ahead of full fledged launch. Amazon.com launched a Kindle store in Canada and Brazil last week. It also arrived in India in September and Japan in October. Former China chief of Amazon.com said that this year the company was in talks with Chinese publishers on content deals and is expected to launch the Kindle within two years.

 

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