In a bid to fortify presence in the world of e-books, Amazon AMZN has added a vast repertoire of Arabic books on its reading device, Kindle.
With the latest move, the company intends to cater to the growing global demand for Arabic books among Arabic readers as well as other readers.
The company has added more than 12k books to its Kindle store which is in sync with the expansion of Amazon’s e-books portfolio. These books are not only available on Kindle devices but also on the Kindle app on iPhone, iPad, Fire Tablets, and Android phones and tablets.
Further, the authors and publishers of these Arabic books will get a platform to showcase their works and writings. They will also be able to reach out to the interested readers efficiently.
Moreover, we believe the company’s book offering will get better which is likely to attract more readers to the platform. Consequently, this will boost the sales of Kindle devices as well as download of Kindle app, driving revenues.
Coming to the price performance, shares of Amazon have returned 44.6% on a year-to-date basis, outperforming the industry’s rally of 23.9%.
Growing E-Book Market
Amazon continues to focus on expansion of its books portfolio to cater to the rising demand for e-books worldwide due to growing internet and mobile phone use.
Moreover, e-books which are easily available for purchase as well as for free of cost in many cases, are gaining traction in this tech-savvy world.
Per the latest report from Statista, the global e-book market is expected to generate $11.9 billion revenues in 2018. Further, the revenues are anticipated to grow at a CAGR of 3.3% between 2018 and 2022 and to reach $13.5 billion by 2022.
We note that the availability of wide range of books in Arabic as well as in other languages such as English, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Japanese, Chinese, Russian and many more, will continue to the help the company in capitalizing on this growing market.
Intensifying Competition
Amazon holds a dominant position in the e-book devices market but has competition in the form of Kobo, a device similar to Kindle owned by Japanese retail giant, Rakuten.
Further, Rakuten has joined forces with Walmart WMT to make Kobo available in the U.S. market via the latter’s retail chain. We believe Amazon will continue to gain competitive edge against Walmart as well Kobo in the U.S. e-book market, courtesy of its rich collection of books.
According to data from Statista, revenues in the U.S. e-book market are expected to reach $5.3 billion between 2018 and 2022. Further, e-book user penetration is anticipated to hit 26.1% by 2022.
Amazon is well poised to cater to the growing demand for e-books with its robust Kindle features.
Per the recent announcement of the company, Kindle store now contains famous and award winner Arabic books from leading authors namely Naguib Mahfouz and Nizar Qabani. A few Arabic bestsellers on offer are Al Aswad Yaliko Biki, Muqadimah, Kalila wa Dimna and Harbo Alkalbi Athania.
Additionally, the company now offers the translated version of English fictions that are largely popular across the world — Diary of a Wimpy Kid, A Tale of Two Cities, How to Win Friends and Influence People, and Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.
Consequently, introduction of Arabic books are like breaking the language barrier. This will aid the global expansion of Kindle and to support this mission, the company rolled out Kindle Lite app for Android use in India in March 2018.
Thus, Amazon Kindle will continue to gain momentum in the market driven by its expanding collection of books in several dialects and global penetration of Kindle use.
Zacks Rank & Stocks to Consider
Currently, Amazon carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).
Some better-ranked stocks in the retail-wholesale sector are Expedia EXPE and TripAdvisor TRIP. Both the stocks carry a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
Long-term earnings growth rate for Expedia and TripAdvisor is currently pegged at 14.52% and 13.85%, respectively.
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