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。 I stand by the Miluo River as dusk falls. The court betrayal is too much. I served Chu with loyalty. I forged alliances and fought corruption. But the whispers of jealous courtiers, the murmurs of treason, spoke louder. The king cast me out. The water looks calm. It promises peace. I step in. The river is cold against my legs. I hear shouts behind me — fishermen calling my name. I keep walking. The calls grow louder, but I do not turn around. The water rises to my chest. It pulls at me. I
In Taiwan, people can use a platform to rent a power washer for a weekend or share unused garage space for someone’s storage needs. These are examples of the sharing economy, a consumption model that has gained widespread adoption worldwide. This approach allows people to rent or share assets like cars, homes or even services, typically through online platforms. This innovative model poses a simple yet powerful question: why purchase infrequently used items when sharing is more practical? By making useful but idle resources accessible, the sharing economy turns them into sustainable opportunities. Internationally, platforms like Airbnb and Uber have popularized
A: Recently, I’ve been seeing mosquitoes flying around in front of my eyes. The doctor said it’s the “flying-mosquito disease.” B: Flying mosquitoes? What a strange name. A: They’re actually called “floaters” in English, meaning floating debris. When fibrous substances in the vitreous body inside the eyeballs increase, floaters can appear in the visual field. B: Oh my goodness. Can you get rid of them? A: According to ophthalmologist Horng Chi-ting’s research, taking the enzymes of certain fruits is likely to help reduce floaters. A: 我最近一直覺得眼前有蚊子飛來飛去，結果醫生說是「飛蚊症」。 B: 飛蚊症？好奇怪的病名。 A: 英文名稱叫「floaters」， 也就是漂浮物的意思。 因為眼球的玻璃體中纖維化物質增多，導致視野出現漂浮物。 B: 天啊！要怎麼把蚊子趕走？ A:
Continued from yesterday（延續自昨日） https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/lang Many people may be familiar with flapjack octopuses thanks to Pearl, a charming character from the Pixar film Finding Nemo. However, her portrayal presents several scientific inaccuracies. In reality, flapjack octopuses are deep-sea creatures, which are unsuitable for the brightly lit shallow reef environment depicted in the film. Their primary defense mechanism relies on their reddish coloration, which would be ineffective in the well-lit shallows. Pearl’s famous line, “You guys made me ink,” is another fictional detail that is not consistent with the observed actions of real flapjack octopuses. As common as it is in many other octopus
RSS