Malaysian eBook in 2013, and what next in 2014?

It is that time of the year again for us to look back at the past year and review what has or has not been achieved, and what to do next. To be honest, it felt like it was still yesterday that we blogged about 2012 review, where has 2013 disappeared to? Again, I would say that time literally flies especially in the new media industry. As for us at e-Sentral, eBook selection and variety over 2013

has shown a significant growth resulting to higher sales and content growth. More and more people have got to know e-Sentral and using it on a daily basis. We see a high percentage of returning users especially amongst Android users. This year also witnessed Kamus Dewan Bahasa entering e-Sentral, a turning point in local perception towards eBooks. We have also seen a higher entry of self-publishing authors publishing on the platform, especially after the eBook Competition 2013. This year is also the year e-Sentral content became interactive. With the entry of Digimag (Interactive Digital Magazine), the platform added a new level of dynamics to content, making it the only platform with cross platform interactive content capability. As we are leaving the exciting year of 2013, what are there to be expected for the year 2014? For a start, we are predicting a huge demand from digital library or ebook lending sector. It is estimated via e-Sentral alone eBook demand from libraries could touch RM1 Million in content supply in 2014. This is definitely a paradigm shift occurring from corporate and govt agency sectors. At e-Sentral, we are predicting 2014 to be another exciting year for eBooks, simply because in 2013 for the first time in many years, physical book sales have experienced a drop and has by pass saturation point. Nonetheless, only time will tell when eBooks will become an everyday normality for Malaysian lives. It is very clear now that digital movement is inevitable. Next year will also see drastic changes in Malaysia’s education as we lean more and more towards digital. Despite the animosity against YTL and Google combo in preparing a national learning cloud platform for the future of our kids, MoE and other agencies will see it through that the education sector is well prepared for the second wave of digital initiatives. We would also like to take the opportunity to thank you for all the support given over the year. We promise that we will make our platform better in 2014 for you. Happy New Year! E-Sentral