Internet in Russia – will it save the book trade?

Wolfgang Bertrams (left) and Mirza Hayit (right)

“Can the Internet save the Russian book trade?” In light of the debates surrounding the Google Settlement, this question sounds almost heretical. Not so to Russian ears evidently. A panel discussion was organised by the German Book Information Centre (BIZ) Moscow and by the Goethe Institute to provide an international perspective. The event was attended by Wolfgang Bertrams of the Mayersche Buchhandlung, Alexander Ivanov from the Russian publisher “Ad Marginem”, and representatives of Russian bookstores and Internet portals.

"Can the Internet save the Russian book market?": A question of great interest to the public

Mirza Hayit of the Haufe Mediengruppe was invited to provide the German publishing perspective and confirmed what for Russian readers is a part of everyday life:  “The distribution process and the availability of books is appallingly bad and completely centred in Moscow and St. Petersburg.” Internet bookstores like the Russian replica of Amazon, Ozon.ru, are the ones who stand to gain from this. In the first quarter of 2009, Ozon was able to defy the ubiquitous recession, increasing its sales by a third. Yet Mirza Hayit remains sceptical: “The field of e-publishing could be an opportunity, but when I look at the infrastructure for Internet access outside of the urban centres, I realise this will probably still take awhile. Overall confidence in the Internet book trade does not seem to be very pronounced on the part of publishers and it also falls flat, according to Ozon, because publishers are not ready to grant extended payment terms”. Internet use in Russia is concentrated in the urban centres: There are more than 40 million Internet users, around 12 million of whom live in and around Moscow. In June 2009, 9.35 million private households had broadband access.

In Germany, the digital future is already the present. While a specialist publisher / media group like Haufe still made 90 per cent of its sales via print in 1990, that number is just 50 per cent in 2009. The rest is brought in through online activities, software, and also by offering seminars. Mirza Hayit estimates that in 2020, every second euro of profit will come from the online field. “Print will remain, but there will not be any growth here.”

His German colleague Wolfgang Bertrams estimates that Mayersche has a 10 to 15 per cent market share on the Internet. Mayersche has also profited in the business-to-business field, particularly by offering its own e-book distribution. Mayersche is Germany’s third largest bookstore chain (after DBH and Thalia), with 1,000 employees and its own logistics. Nevertheless, Bertrams is sceptical about what the future holds: “The Internet is a problem for the retail book trade in Germany” – and not the thing that will save it…

Tags: Ad Marginem, distribution, Haufe Mediengruppe, Internet, Mayersche Buchhandlung

Posted in Internet, distribution