(Source: http://www.rbc.ru/rbcfreenews/543cfe9acbb20f706d21fd16)

 The Russian market of electronic books grew by 37% - up to $ 13 million - at year-end of 2013, as compared to the previous year, as the experts of J'son & Partners Consulting calculated. Three years ago, in 2010, the sales of books were about six times less.

J'son & Partners consider the texts, not the readers (electronic gadgets designed for long-term storage and reading of hundreds of books), to be the e-book market. The most part of the purchases of books by Russian users is made via personal computers and laptops, the smaller number of books are purchased via mobile devices, but the share of such purchases is growing rapidly.

“Only 21% of e-books were purchased through the mobile network in 2010. However, at year-end of 2012 the share of such consumption rose to 46%, and this share is expected to increase up to 77% by the end of 2016” - the representative of J'son & Partners Consulting Kirill Ostrovskiy told to RBC.

J'son & Partners connects the rapid development of the industry with the growing popularity of mobile devices convenient for reading books, increasing variety of e-books, development of the legal market and reduction in the average price of books in digital format.

There are two main obstacles hindering further growth of the market, according to the experts. First, these are a large number of illegal services in this segment and the absence of major international players, such as Amazon, on the Russian market. According to the company estimates, 92% of users download books, including their pirated copies, from the Internet for free.

The second obstacle is the lack of a culture of consumption of paid content typical for all segments of the Russian digital market, the company clarifies. The share of Russia in the global e-book market is only 0.1% for the time being. However, according to the agency forecasts, the Russian market will grow by 132% in 2016, in comparison with the results of 2013 and will reach about $ 30 million.