National Book Store to get into eBook business?

Abe Olandres January 3, 2011 · 1 min read

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Got this from a reliable source that National Book Store (NBS) is planning to get into the ebook business. I was a little surprised at first but considering that NBS is the biggest book retailer in the country, going into the eBook business this early makes good business sense.

Aside from distributing thousands of book titles, NBS also publishes a few titles themselves. They also got an online store thats been running for years.

It’s too early to tell how the eBooks will be distributed but it could either be implemented via an online store or via on-site transfer (within an NBS branch nationwide).

The viability of this business will rely heavily of the adoption rate of tablets and eBook readers in the country. However, if schools (like St. Paul, et al) starts to standardize the use of tablet and eReaders in the classroom, we might be able to see this project thru.

If we can get more local books digitized, then why not?

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Abe Olandres

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Abe is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of YugaTech with over 20 years of experience in the technology industry. He is one of the pioneers of blogging in the country and considered by many as the Father of Tech Blogging in the Philippines. He is also a technology consultant, a tech columnist with several national publications, resource speaker and mentor/advisor to several start-up companies.

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52 Comments

cell phone information”,”mobile phone information” · 14 years ago

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Benchmark33 · 15 years ago

alan_tan:

I think you didn’t get my point. Sharing in a sense that giving out the same PDF file to others who didn’t bought the book. It is TOTALLY different in real books.

Can 2 persons read in one “analog” book at the same time? Or say 3 persons? 4? 5? 100?

In PDF converted book, you can. All you have to do is share or make a copy or duplicate it (like what gg says) to have 100 of copies. Worse give it via Torrent.

That is my point.

jenifer · 15 years ago

Quite an interesting bolg.really informative.for all shopping lovers go online shopping.great things to find out there.

Alexis · 15 years ago

Nice move by NBS! This project will save thousands of trees nationwide. And also ebook is cheaper than hardcopy books.

E-reader manufacturer will be happy about this move and I should say I will invest on this one.

My question is how about the workbook? I hope they would come-up a good idea on this one.

Iyan Sommerset · 15 years ago

Hopefully, this leads to cheaper non-tablet e-book readers. As it is, Kindles and Nooks available locally are way overpriced.

MindanaoBob · 15 years ago

The obvious question then is this… when will National Bookstore come out with a Kindle-like device to read those e-books they will be selling?

Miguel Paraz · 15 years ago

for those here old enough – remember when Marcos granted an exemption from copyright law and we had “legal” local reprints of books? LOL!!

gg · 15 years ago

@alan

yah nothing is wrong with the idea of sharing. sa kahit anung bagay naman. ang problem here is ung duplication. and redistribution, reselling. pwedeng mamatay ang business dahil din.

imagine, sa isang class,ung isang student bumili ng book. tapos pumayag ung prof na pwdeng xersx. lahat ng classmate niya went for the xerox. lugi siya at ung author. walang kinita.

kung magiging ganyan ung trend, mababawasan na ang gustong maginvest sa line of business na yun. take this ebook thing for ex.

vince · 15 years ago

Good move!

alan_tan · 15 years ago

As for sharing an ebook that you have already purchased, why not? If I buy a physical or analog book and then share it with friends and family, this is not criminal nor morally objectionable. Why should it be any different when it comes to ebooks?

alan_tan · 15 years ago

They should implement both types: online and on-site sales. My ideal is to go to an NBS branch, scan the available titles, then pay for it over-the-counter with plastic or cash before your are given the code to open your purchased eBook. They should also sell all brands of e-readers so those without ebooks can buy the hardware, with free ebook samples. That would be nice!

Toughie · 15 years ago

Good job NBS. Hats off to their management for innovation. I heard they are now an Apple reseller. I’m sure this eBook thing will just be a supplement to their existing businesses

Technopacs · 15 years ago

The main problem of NBS is copyright violations. Its not a good business sense in this time because auhorities had not tame the piracy in this country.

Benchmark33 · 15 years ago

Hmmm problem here….copyright…specially it is easy to share ebooks to others…buy one ebook, hundreds can share the cost plus share the ebook for those who didn’t really bought it.

Like Mp3’s and movies, there would also be pirated ebooks.

I hope they can secure it digitally that it can never be shared…perhaps a watermark of the complete name and address of the buyer of ebook in all pages…

Jhay · 15 years ago

If NBS will bring back many local books that are now out of print into the eBook format, then they’d be on to something here.

anil · 15 years ago

This is in line with recent trends of E-biz populairty

marco · 15 years ago

Too bad digital copies are impossible to resell. But it will a good idea if they will offer a free digital copy for every hard copies. They could include a unique code inside the bundle that you may use for download online. Or better yet, sell digital copies alone at a reasonably lower price! Like upto 50% off. :) otherwise, i won’t be abandoning the old ways. I have no fully fledged ebook reader anyway, i read digital copies on tiny smartphone screens. That sucks.

Miguel Paraz · 15 years ago

Hope this helps local authors to get read abroad – and get paid too!

NemOry · 15 years ago

Digitalized na halos lahat sa 2011 oh nice. ,hehe.
Nice plan from NBS but I hope they cannot be cheated, haha, .ebooks has no security dba?na my license for example if you bought it, you have to enter a licensed code,haha,
Kasi what will happen e madaling mag spread ang book especially torrent sites.haha. . .sana wag cla ma babankrupt dahl dito.

lou · 15 years ago

good to hear that.. no hassle of bringing super heavy books everyday in school.. hope that the school will provide super discounted prices for the devices like ipad which u can use.. like ateneo for giving dscounts on ipad on atenean students

Jojo Agot · 15 years ago

How would NBS fare in the online book market if Apple and Barnes & Nobles are trailing far behind Amazon? Unless they could offer better deals, NBS’ chances are slim.

John · 15 years ago

Love the idea. Gotta find the cheapest e-book reader.

ellen · 15 years ago

Nice move for NBS if ever. Publishers should start converting their print books to e-books too and universities should ask students to submit their thesis in digital files as well so researching in libraries would be way easier.