How do Russians acquire books?
Nearly one third of Russians bought books in offline or online stores, according to a survey from 2021. However, the largest share admitted that they usually checked if a free version of a book was available online before purchasing it. Piracy is one of the major challenges in the industry, with Russia ranking fourth by visits to publishing piracy websites worldwide. The average selling price of a print book stood at 351 Russian rubles in 2021, while the cost of a digital book was 40 percent lower.The most popular digital book provider was LitRes, which reached nearly 13 percent of the Russian audience. LitRes was also the leading platform on which consumers spent money on e-books, followed by the online marketplace Ozon. Moreover, the mobile app of LitRes had the largest in-app revenue in the book reading segment.
