Hola, Kindle! Amazon launches Mexican e-book store, publishing
Amazon is selling its Kindle and Kindle Paperwhite e-reader locally in Mexico and is launching both a Mexico Kindle Store and a publishing platform for authors there.
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Amazon launched a Mexican Kindle store, publishing platform and local brick-and-mortar sales in the country's Gandhi chain of booksellers Thursday, bringing the popular e-reader directly to a Latin American market.
Early this year, Amazon opened up sales of its Kindle Paperwhite e-reader for delivery in more than 175 countries, after it was previously only sold in the US, Japan, and some European countries. This takes the business directly into one of Latin America's biggest markets.
On Thursday, the e-commerce giant said that Kindle and Kindle Paperwhite are now available in Gandhi Stores at a suggested price of 1,399 pesos and 2,399 pesos (US$105 and US$180), respectively. Meanwhile, the new Mexico Kindle Store offers 2 million e-book titles, more than 70,000 of which are in Spanish and of those, 1,500 that are free.
In addition, Mexican writers and publishers are able to sell their works to customers in their own country and more than 175 others worldwide in the new store using the company's Kindle Direct Publishing platform.
"The vast majority of Mexicans do not have access to a bookstore in their town," said Pedro Huerta, director of Kindle Content in Latin America, adding that the Mexican Kindle bookstore delivers a catalog of millions of titles to anyone with an Internet connection. He also noted those with access to Gandhi stores have a more convenient way to buy Kindles.
An element that Huerta overlooked is the fact that the majority of Mexicans also do not have access to the Internet. According to the Mexican Internet Association, 45.1 percent of Mexicans have Internet access. However, it is among the most Internet-connected countries in Latin America, alongside Brazil.