
E-book sales revenue in the U.S. 2008-2018
E-book sales in the United States - additional information
An e-book, also known as an electronic or digital book, is a digitally released version of a book, often consisting of text and images and available on electronic devices, such as specifically designed e-book readers. The most well known e-book device is the Amazon Kindle, originally released in 2007. E-books can also be used on computers, tablets and even on smartphones, as this survey shows.
In the United States, the e-books industry has grown tremendously in the past decade, primarily due to a higher supply and demand of e-book devices and applications, but also due to lower prices compared to hard copies, as well as ease of travel and storage. However, forecasts suggest that the number of e-book users in the U.S. is expected to fall from 92.64 million in 2015 to 88.45 million in 2021.
Many e-books are available through American public libraries, which, since 2003, have an increasingly popular e-book lending model of both fiction and non-fiction titles for different audiences. However, despite the rise in e-book popularity, hard copy books were still the preferred choice for readers in 2015. Based on a survey, 47 percent of all respondents claimed to read only hard copy books, while only four percent of all respondents read only e-books. Unsurprisingly, the most prolific e-book readers are the Millennials (ages 18 to 29), which make up 35 percent of all digital book readers.