Kenya’s ePublishing sector has received a boost with Orange’s announcement that it is to launch of $9 million e-book distribution channel, making it easy for readers to purchase books and read them on different screens.
The MO3T network will allow publishers to put their products online by people across the world to buy.
“MO3T was born out of a shared conviction: for digital books to develop in all their diversity, it is essential to create the conditions for an open and pluralistic market, the only way to guarantee development, innovation and long term success,” Orange said.
The project brings together 18 players in the publishing and digital fields. The company expects the platform to be completed at the end of 2013.
“MO3T allows those involved in the model – publishers and e-distributors, booksellers and personal library operators – to each develop their own businesses,” the company said.
Digital distribution of music, movies and books is becoming a cheaper option, especially in Africa where ICT is booming.
In May this year, Kenyans witnessed the introduction of the country’s first e-book store. eKitabu, created by Digital Divide Data (DDD), has over 250,000 local and international books available via digital means.
Physical book sales in Africa are low due to a bad reading culture. But with the embrace of technology, books can be lowered in price and made more accessible for consumers.
