Amazon Launches ‘Massive’ Expansion in Russia – Report

(RIA Novosti – WASHINGTON, August 13, 2013) ­ Online U.S. retail behemoth Amazon is embarking on a “massive” expansion in the Russian books market and has already begun signing contracts with Russia’s largest publishing houses, a publishing industry website has reported.

The Seattle-based firm has already signed an agreement with Rosman, one of Russia’s biggest publishers of children’s titles, for 100-150 e-books a year, although that number is expected to double by the end of the year, Publishing Perspectives said in an article published Thursday.

Amazon’s Russia operation is being headed by Arkady Vitruk, the former head of Russian publishing giant Azbuka-Atticus, the article said, following a report earlier this year that Vitruk was in talks on the job.

Tech website East-West Digital News said in April that Amazon does not disclose its sales figures for the Russian market, where consumers have relied on foreign versions of Amazon websites, but estimated they were “certainly” in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

Amazon will enter a market where online piracy remains widespread although by restricting its initial sales to digital content it will avoid problems of distribution through the postal service.

Meanwhile, the online retail sector in Russia is booming, with sales expected to reach or exceed $50 billion by the end of the decade, according to a June 2013 research study by East West Digital News.