Amazon officially launched the traditional Chinese Kindle e-book platform on May 24. Now users have access to over 20,000 e-books in traditional Chinese through the Kindle app or Kindle-reader devices.
Of the 40,000 books published per year in Taiwan, with its population of 23 million, only 3 percent are electronic books. Amazon has previously announced its plan to move into Taiwan and enter the traditional Chinese e-book market.
Over a year ago, Amazon’s Beijing team, including its operational and technical department members, visited Taiwan to assess its market potential. They found that despite impressive publishing volumes, Taiwan’s market was too small, and exploiting its potential would present a challenge.
Photo: Screen grab from YouTube
照片：擷圖自YouTube
Although Taiwanese account for 90 percent of the sales of e-books published in Taiwan, readers of traditional Chinese books can be found all around the world. Amazon’s breaking into the traditional Chinese e-book publishing gives it access not only to Taiwan’s market, but also to consumers of traditional Chinese readers worldwide. The new platform will enable e-books to reach places paper-based books previously did not, so publications in traditional Chinese can now be distributed in large volumes throughout the globe.
With the clear potential for growth in the e-book market, many book-selling platforms have embraced e-books over the past two years. Reading this trend, publishers will be encouraged to increase publication of e-books, making the e-book market more vibrant.
Chinese-language books form an important sector for global publishing, and Amazon is one of the world’s leading e-commerce companies. Domestic e-book platform operators are optimistic about Amazon’s breaking into Taiwan’s e-book market as, with the clear upward trend in e-book sales, increasing numbers of Taiwanese books can be sold to the global Chinese-reading market through Amazon’s platform.
Photo: Screen grab from Amazon’s Online Shop
照片：擷圖自亞馬遜購物網
In addition to e-book content, many major e-book platforms have also developed their own reading devices, such as the Amazon Kindle and Rakuten Kobo from overseas companies. Taiwanese e-book company Readmoo has also developed its own reader MooInk, which is optimized for reading in Chinese.
(Translated by Lin Lee-kai, Taipei Times)
亞馬遜五月二十四日正式推出繁體中文Kindle電子書市，使用者可透過應用程式或Kindle閱讀器，購買已上架的兩萬多本繁體中文書籍。
Photo: Paul Cooper, Taipei Times
照片：台北時報記者古德謙攝
台灣兩千三百萬人口每年出版量可達四萬本，但電子書市占率只有約百分之三。亞馬遜之前就宣布要進軍台灣，競逐繁體中文電子書市場。
亞馬遜一年多前從美國帶著北京團隊，營運、技術部門一行人來台考察，但即使台灣出版產量驚人，由於市場太小，要賣給誰、怎麼賣，一直是個大問題。
台灣電子書有百分之九十的購買者都在台灣，但閱讀繁體中文書的人散落世界各地。亞馬遜繁體中文書上架，不只是看上台灣市場，而是看上全球閱讀繁中書籍的市場。以前實體書無法到達之處，透過電子書平台皆可觸及，未來繁體中文書可大量輸出到其他國家。
未來電子書的成長趨勢明顯，這兩年很多購書平台走向電子書。隨著閱讀型態改變，出版商出電子書的意願也將提高，電子書市場變成一個熱絡的市場。
華文是全球出版重要的一環，亞馬遜是全球最重要的電商之一，對於亞馬遜電子書進軍台灣，國內電子書平台業者皆樂觀以待，認為電子書成長趨勢明顯，透過亞馬遜的平台，台灣書可以賣到全球中文閱讀市場。
除了電子書內容，許多主要電子書平台也開發出各自的閱讀器，例如飄洋過海來台的亞馬遜Kindle和樂天Kobo，以及台灣本土的讀墨Readmoo專為繁體中文閱讀而生的mooInk電子書閱讀器。
（中央社）
Renhe sat stiffly at the Wei Ya banquet, picking at the symbolic dishes on the table. Fish for abundance, sticky rice cake for progress — it all seemed superstitious to him. The shrine to the Land God near the entrance, adorned with offerings, incense, and fruit, struck him as frivolous. “What does this have to do with running a business?” Renhe scrolled on his phone as his co-workers performed skits and poorly sung songs. He wasn’t even paying attention to the lucky draws when his name was called. The room filled with applause and cheers as he went to the stage
Stonefish may not be the most impressive-looking animal in the sea. In fact, this fish is so skilled at camouflage that most people wouldn’t notice it if they swam past it. Despite their unremarkable appearance, stonefish are the most venomous fish in the ocean. Stonefish come in various shades of brown, red, yellow, and orange. Their rough skin texture and blotchy color pattern give them a remarkable resemblance to stones, which is where their name comes from. This feature helps them blend in with their surroundings exceptionally well. Stonefish are notable for their 13 highly venomous spines which protrude
「雙手合十／合掌禮」(namaste) or 「碰肘／擊肘」 (elbow bump): 新冠肺炎流行逐漸改變現代社會的某些社交禮儀，歐美許多名人政要開始以「雙手合十／合掌禮」(namaste) 或「碰肘／擊肘」(elbow bump) 替代握手。 《今日商業》報導英國王儲查爾斯以「雙手合十」代替握手。 Coronavirus update: Prince Charles spotted greeting people with namaste (Business Today , March 12, 2020) 另外，《商業內幕》報導：疫情期間美國總統川普在白宮舉行新冠肺炎記者會，想和居家照護公司LHC集團執行副總葛林斯坦 (Bruce Greenstein) 握手，葛林斯坦婉拒，示意改用擊肘。 President Donald Trump attempted to shake hands with a home health care company executive . . . but the man turned the president down and offered him an elbow bump instead. (Eliza Relman, Business Insider , March 14, 2020) 「雙手合十／合掌禮」源自印度，也流行於泰、緬等國家。「碰肘／擊肘」則是 2006 禽流感、2009 豬流感後逐漸流行。疫情逐漸改變我們的生活方式，包括打招呼等社交禮儀，也出現了微妙的變化。 「拱手禮」(fist-and-palm salute) 至於華人社會傳統上也有雙手互握合於胸前「拱手禮」(fist-and-palm salute)。公益網站 Just Quarantine 提到： Taiwanese president Tsai Ing-wen demonstrating social distancing through use of a traditional Chinese greeting (fist & palm) instead of shaking hands in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. 因應新冠肺炎疫情，2020 當年總統蔡英文與來訪賓客保持安全距離，拱手 (fist &
The cocoa industry is currently facing a crisis, with this year’s cocoa trading price soaring to an unprecedented $10,000 per ton—a 400 percent increase from last year—stemming from diminished crop yields. Given cocoa’s indispensable role in chocolate-making, this surge has driven up chocolate prices and triggered concerns about the sustainability of global chocolate production. West Africa, home to over half of the world’s cocoa trees, is at the center of this issue. The Republic of Cote d’Ivoire and the Republic of Ghana, in particular, are facing severe challenges from both natural disasters and human-induced factors, substantially impacting cocoa harvests. Climate change, with
RSS