Despite Slow Start, Ebooks Gain Ground in Europe

From Agence France-Presse (AFP):

Ebook sales in Germany have doubled this year but still only account for two percent of the overall book market, compared to 20 percent in the US, Gottfried Honnefelder, president of the German Booksellers’ and Publishers’ Association, told reporters here.
Britain, where Amazon launched its Kindle ebook reader in 2010, is further down the digital road, with consumer ebook sales making up about 13 percent of combined print and ebook sales in the first half of 2012, according to The Publishers Association.
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Academic books is one field in Germany to have embraced the ebook earlier, driven by demands from libraries for titles to be digitised, and is not far behind the US market, an academic publisher said here.
“The US might be, say one year ahead, maybe two, I can’t say exactly, but it’s not like it’s a bright day in the US and dark night on the continent of Europe,” Karlheinz Hoefner, sales director of Oldenbourg Verlag said, referring to academic publishing.

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