Amazon Is The Only Firm In Place For International Media

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Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) is many things, but it’s certainly not slow on the uptake. The company has entered many markets before they have matured, and it has had a profound effect on a number of them. There are still markets out there for the company to exploit, however, and Morgan Stanley addresses a new one in a report on the company.

Amazon Is The Only Firm In Place For International Media

The United States tends to get the most recognition from media companies. The country has large and reasonably homogenous population demographics; it’s wealthy and, most importantly, it’s where most of the world’s media empires are based. Internet media has been no different, but there is demand for services in other countries. Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) is primed to take advantage of those.

Amazon and foreign books

The Morgan Stanley report, which was authored by analysts Scott Devitt, Stephen Shin, and Nishant Verma, takes a look at Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN)’s achievements in foreign book markets and concludes that the company is the only one well positioned to serve those markets.

Amazon has increased the number of books in local markets by three to four times since they launched back in 2011. The report names the German bookstore as the most impressive, with an eightfold increase to 210,000 works in the same period. Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN)’s efforts to increase selection in its local book stores is not the only thing helping the company, however.

The total ebook share of the book market in non-English speaking countries is lower than in the UK and the U.S., according to the report. There is untapped potential in Western nations that do not call English their first language. When Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) sees a market, it tends to run for it.

No competition for Amazon

Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) has run into a great deal of legal trouble with its Google Books service, and Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has yet to sell a dedicated reader. There are very few other operators in the market able to compete with Amazon branding, reach and integration. The international ebook market is ripe for the company to pick, and that might not be the only advantage.

Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX) is still having trouble establishing itself in Europe and elsewhere, and rich media is a market that needs big companies to function. Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) could establish a branding moat that will make it the major force in international markets going ahead, though there are some problems to solve first.

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