Amazon announced on June 2 that it would shut down its Kindle e-book service in China for next year. This statement comes just a week after Airbnb’s withdrawal from Chinese territory.
Kindle turns the page
It will no longer be possible to purchase new e-books in China from June 30, 2023. Users will still be able to continue downloading their purchases on the application one year after this date. Amazon plans to remove the Kindle app from Chinese app markets sometime in 2024. The company is offering a refund for people who purchased a Kindle e-reader in China after January 1, 2022.
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According to Amazon, the removal is not motivated by pressure or censorship from Beijing, ” We remain committed to our customers in China. As a global company, we periodically re-evaluate our offerings and make adjustments regardless of where we operate “says a spokesperson to the press agency Reuters.
The e-commerce juggernaut had closed part of its activities in China in 2019. It had chosen to focus on cross-border trade, by only making products available on its Chinese platform from the United States, Japan, China. Germany, or the United Kingdom.
US companies struggle to break into the Chinese market
Amazon is not the first American company to leave the Middle Kingdom, nor the last. Companies domiciled in the United States face strong competition imposed by their Chinese rivals such as WeChat or Alibaba. These super applications are supported by Beijing, which intends to favor Chinese applications and services. At the end of May, Airbnb handed over the keys while LinkedIn also left the ship a few months earlier.
Kindle had managed to establish itself in the Chinese e-reader market, which accounted for 40% of the device’s global sales in 2017. However, the evolution of smartphones and tablets has intensified, offering new alternatives for people who want to read. electronic books. These substitute options are often designed by local manufacturers like Huawei and iFlytek.
In order to reassure foreign companies, a spokesman for China’s Ministry of Commerce, Gao Feng, said Kindle’s decision was a classic business adjustment and China was always open to welcoming new investors.