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Amazon Continues to Rake in the Cash, Selling More E-Books than Paperbacks

by Terrence O'Brien on January 28, 2011 at 11:45 AM

Kindle 3Amazon's empire is continuing to grow, with the company reporting an increase in profits of eight-percent in the fourth quarter of 2010. That growth was a little slower than expected, but the really big news from Amazon's quarterly financial report is the fact that sales of Kindle e-books have surpassed that of paperbacks. It was only in July sales of e-books passed that of hardcovers -- making it all that much more impressive that, in six months' time, e-book sales have grown enough to eclipse paperbacks, despite the fact that sales of paperbacks actually increased during the period. It seems that e-books have helped spark renewed interest in reading, regardless of medium. Amazon's CEO Jeff Bezos had said he expected e-books to eventually overtake paperbacks, but he didn't expect that to happen until the second quarter of 2010.

In the second quarter of 2010 Amazon was selling 143 e-books for every 100 hardcovers. By Q4, that margin had grown to around 300 e-books for every 100 hardcovers, and 115 electronic texts for every 100 paperbacks. And there's no reason to expect sales of e-books to slow any time soon. As long as the Kindle continues to perform and Amazon continues to sell e-books at a staggering pace, the company should continue to reign as king of online shopping.

Tags: amazon, books, business, deathofprint, e-book, e-books, e-readers, kindle, top, web

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