Today, the latest survey on the German ebook market has been published by the German Publishers & Booksellers Association with GfK Panel Services Germany. 410 booksellers and 348 publishers as well as 10.000 individuals have been questioned. You can download the results of the survey here: “Markt mit Perspektiven – das E-Book in Deutschland 2011” (PDF, German). The press release (also in German) and other numbers can be found here: “Aufbruch oder Umbruch? Der deutsche Buchmarkt und das E-Book”.
The key findings of the survey – among other interesting data on the German market and future perspectives for publishers and booksellers – are:
– In average, in Germany in 2011 ebooks have made 6,2% of the publishers’ overall revenues, compared to 5,4% in 2010. For 2015 publishers expect an ebook revenue share of 17%!
– The overall ebook market share in Germany in 2011 has been 1%, compared to 0,5% in 2010.
– 49% of German publishers have sold ebooks in 2011, which is a plus of 15% compared to 2010. 90% of the publishers will be publishing digitally in the future. From those publishers, who already offer ebooks, 42% of all new titles are also published in ebook formats. In average, in 2011 German publishers offered 162 ebooks. 85% of all publishers are convinced, that EPUB will become the most important format for them!
– The average retail price (incl. 19% VAT) of German ebooks in 2011 has been 8,07 EUR, compared to 10,40 EUR in 2010. 4,7 Million ebooks have been sold in 2011, compared to 2,0 Million in 2010, which sums up to 38 Million EUR ebook revenues in 2011 (according to Buchreport.de). The number of ebook buyers increased from 540.000 in 2010 to 757.000 in 2011. The relevance of dedicated ebook reading devices is supposed to increase in 2012.
– It is expected, that the revenues of German booksellers (“klassischer Buchhandel”) will decrease 16% by 2015 “due to ebook publishing”.
All numbers and data of the German book market will also be published in August under the title: „Buch und Buchhandel in Zahlen 2012“! I can only recommend to have a look at it, if you are interested in the German book market!