E-books are bringing a storm.
It is a totally opposite phenomenon from the past when Social Commerce and others reduced prices just to get rid of E-books that were on stock.
Recently there have been instances when E-books are sold out immediately as soon as they are released. This phenomenon was brought by new E-books that were released by Korea-epub and Ridibooks.
Korea-epub’s Crema Carta is the one that brought this trend in first place.
Crema Carta, which received attention even before its release for its 300 ppi high-quality e-ink display, was first sold by Yes24, Aladdin, and Bandi & Lunis in September. Its name Carta means paper and it was derived from name of a high-quality panel.
Products were sold rapidly after its release. At Yes24, 1,500 products that are amount of first round of sales were sold out in just 15 days and it started selling second round of sales after securing additional supplies. It is estimated that next week’s sales volume will be more than 20,000, and other places such as Aladdin are preparing for additional supplies as their products were sold out also.
Compared to past Crema series, it is surprising to see how well new products are doing. Although Korea e-pub started with Crema Touch in 2011 and Shine and One afterwards, its accumulated sales in 4 years were only around 60,000.
Popularity of E-books that started with Crema Carta was also shown on the first day of Ridibooks’ Paper’s release. Products that were released in October were sold out within couple minutes and its second round of sales on the 16th also was sold out on the first day of release.
“Even though we thought thousands of supplies were enough, we did not expect that they will be sold out on the first day.” said an employee from Ridibooks. “As we are speeding up our process according to supply and demands, we are going to resume sales as soon as we are ready.”
This trend can be seen as a result that overturns bias that E-books will not work in South Korea. Even in South Korea, E-books created enough demands as products’ level of completion and p[rice and vitalization of E-books’ markets interlinked.
“Through trials and errors from past products, they were able to improve E-books’ level of completion, software, and quality.” said Team Leader Kim Nam Chul of Aladdin’s E-books’ Team. “E-books will continue their popularity as recently increased demands for E-books and application of technologies that minimize afterimage effect and high-quality panels interlink.”
Staff Reporter Kim, Changwook | [email protected]
