Telecom Italia SpA, Italy’s largest telecoms operator believes eBooks will take off in Italy among young readers, and is targeting up to 40% of the country’s digital book market as it prepares for the launch of its new tablet by February.
According to Cesare Sironi, Head of Telecom Italia’s strategy and innovation, the Italian eBook market is at its very early stages, but they consider it a potentially booming one, as it was for mobile phones and social networks. The digital sector represents just 0.03% of the Italian book market, which is worth about US$4.47 billion.
He added, but it has a good chance of growing to 8% of the whole market, as already happened in the United States, in a period of three to four years. Telecom Italia aims to conquer 30% to 40% of this blooming market. Statistics show that teenagers between 11 and 19 years old are the people who read more, and also the ones more open to technological innovation.
Telecom Italia is targeting this young demographic with its own digital platform and different products, as it seals content partnerships with Italy’s largest publishers such as RCS Mediagroup and Mondadori.