According to a study by Statista’s Advertising & Media Outlook, ebook sales are still trailing physical book sales globally, especially during the dog days of the covid-19 pandemic. The study, which asked respondents to describe their book purchases in 2020, found that ebooks still haven’t replaced paper in most countries.
“In the United States for example, where e-books are very popular in comparison, 23 percent of the population are estimated to have purchased an e-book last year, compared to 45 percent who bought a printed book,” wrote researcher Felix Richter.
China, in particular, is an interesting case in that ebooks and printed books are actually closing in on each other with 24% of respondents saying they bought a digital book versus the 32% who bought paper. This disparity isn’t quite explained, but given Asia, more broadly, has been on the phone-reading kick for a long time, witnessed by the 2000s fad of “phone written” bestsellers in Japan, it’s still an interesting finding.
As an avid reader and writer (and technophile), I feel I have a dog in the ebook fight, and I keep expecting ebooks to overtake paper books at some point in the near future. That said, I’m always slightly disappointed and still feel these studies, which could be biased towards readers who have time to take a survey, may skew the findings slightly. That said, nothing about this is surprising and it’s good to know we’re all still reading.
DISCUSSION
I don’t know if it’s possible but I’d like to see the rate of borrowing printed versus e-books from libraries. I read a lot and with the pandemic libraries closed at the beginning. I switched to e-books and audiobooks out of necessity and I love it. I even went and bought a Kindle Paperwhite because my eyes were getting strained from reading on my tablet. My library is still super cautious so I can’t browse when it’s convenient for me and can only do pickups which is fine because I only get a physical book now when my local library or the New York Public Library doesn’t have a digital version available which luckily isn’t that often. I’m a fan of printed books but after this last year I don’t know if I’ll buy many physical books going forward. I already have a full bookshelf and outside of some obscure ones they’re readily available to borrow so I don’t see the need to take up what limited space I have.