Amazon officially launched the traditional Chinese Kindle e-book platform on May 24. Now users have access to over 20,000 e-books in traditional Chinese through the Kindle app or Kindle-reader devices.
Of the 40,000 books published per year in Taiwan, with its population of 23 million, only 3 percent are electronic books. Amazon has previously announced its plan to move into Taiwan and enter the traditional Chinese e-book market.
Over a year ago, Amazon’s Beijing team, including its operational and technical department members, visited Taiwan to assess its market potential. They found that despite impressive publishing volumes, Taiwan’s market was too small, and exploiting its potential would present a challenge.
Photo: Screen grab from YouTube
照片：擷圖自YouTube
Although Taiwanese account for 90 percent of the sales of e-books published in Taiwan, readers of traditional Chinese books can be found all around the world. Amazon’s breaking into the traditional Chinese e-book publishing gives it access not only to Taiwan’s market, but also to consumers of traditional Chinese readers worldwide. The new platform will enable e-books to reach places paper-based books previously did not, so publications in traditional Chinese can now be distributed in large volumes throughout the globe.
With the clear potential for growth in the e-book market, many book-selling platforms have embraced e-books over the past two years. Reading this trend, publishers will be encouraged to increase publication of e-books, making the e-book market more vibrant.
Chinese-language books form an important sector for global publishing, and Amazon is one of the world’s leading e-commerce companies. Domestic e-book platform operators are optimistic about Amazon’s breaking into Taiwan’s e-book market as, with the clear upward trend in e-book sales, increasing numbers of Taiwanese books can be sold to the global Chinese-reading market through Amazon’s platform.
Photo: Screen grab from Amazon’s Online Shop
照片：擷圖自亞馬遜購物網
In addition to e-book content, many major e-book platforms have also developed their own reading devices, such as the Amazon Kindle and Rakuten Kobo from overseas companies. Taiwanese e-book company Readmoo has also developed its own reader MooInk, which is optimized for reading in Chinese.
(Translated by Lin Lee-kai, Taipei Times)
亞馬遜五月二十四日正式推出繁體中文Kindle電子書市，使用者可透過應用程式或Kindle閱讀器，購買已上架的兩萬多本繁體中文書籍。
Photo: Paul Cooper, Taipei Times
照片：台北時報記者古德謙攝
台灣兩千三百萬人口每年出版量可達四萬本，但電子書市占率只有約百分之三。亞馬遜之前就宣布要進軍台灣，競逐繁體中文電子書市場。
亞馬遜一年多前從美國帶著北京團隊，營運、技術部門一行人來台考察，但即使台灣出版產量驚人，由於市場太小，要賣給誰、怎麼賣，一直是個大問題。
台灣電子書有百分之九十的購買者都在台灣，但閱讀繁體中文書的人散落世界各地。亞馬遜繁體中文書上架，不只是看上台灣市場，而是看上全球閱讀繁中書籍的市場。以前實體書無法到達之處，透過電子書平台皆可觸及，未來繁體中文書可大量輸出到其他國家。
未來電子書的成長趨勢明顯，這兩年很多購書平台走向電子書。隨著閱讀型態改變，出版商出電子書的意願也將提高，電子書市場變成一個熱絡的市場。
華文是全球出版重要的一環，亞馬遜是全球最重要的電商之一，對於亞馬遜電子書進軍台灣，國內電子書平台業者皆樂觀以待，認為電子書成長趨勢明顯，透過亞馬遜的平台，台灣書可以賣到全球中文閱讀市場。
除了電子書內容，許多主要電子書平台也開發出各自的閱讀器，例如飄洋過海來台的亞馬遜Kindle和樂天Kobo，以及台灣本土的讀墨Readmoo專為繁體中文閱讀而生的mooInk電子書閱讀器。
（中央社）
★ Bilingual Story is a fictionalized account. 雙語故事部分內容純屬虛構。 Lucas was already on the ground before he fully understood what was happening. “Hurry! Kneel down!” someone shouted. The asphalt was warm against his knees. Around him, dozens of people lay flat in the narrow street outside Jenn Lann Temple in Dajia. Some pressed their hands together in prayer. Others closed their eyes. Lucas had only come to look at the temple. An hour earlier he had stepped into the noisy courtyard out of curiosity. Inside the main hall, people held incense sticks, bowed three times,
A: Apart from the musical The Phantom of the Opera, off-Broadway classic “I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change” and musical-themed concert “Broadway Hits Live” are also touring Taiwan. B: Musical-themed concert? That sounds interesting. A: Set for April 18 and 19, the show will feature a group of Broadway vocalists and dancers — with British singer Keala Settle as a special guest. B: So the audience can enjoy all the timeless hits from various shows at one concert. . . I like that. A: And there’s more: Andrew Lloyd Webber’s classic musical Jesus Christ Superstar will finally visit Taiwan for the first time
Visitors walking down the streets of London and other major English cities might notice a curious sight. Many of the old __1__ have some of their windows boarded up. What’s even stranger is that there doesn’t appear to be any consistent pattern as to which windows get covered. This architectural __2__ dates back over 300 years during a time when “coin clipping” was a common crime in England. Back then, silver coins had simple designs with __3__, unmarked edges. Without any pattern extending to the coins’ rims, it was difficult to tell if the edges had been __4__. This
Despite being a basic tool, pens come in a wide variety of forms. Classic styles include fountain pens, which deliver liquid ink smoothly through metal tips. Another common type is the ballpoint pen, which is easy to use. There are even special felt pens that are especially popular among artists. __1__ They have a small hole at the top. So why is it there in the first place? Could it actually be a design flaw? __2__ Since 1991, companies such as BIC have been producing ballpoint pens with holes in their caps for two main reasons: quality control
RSS