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The number of French people who have read an e-book has tripled to 15% from 5% a year ago, according to the third biannual barometer on e-book use in France.
The findings, published last Friday ahead of Salon du Livre, revealed that the number of respondents not intending to read a digital book has fallen to 75% from 90% over the past year; that 44% expect to increase their use of e-books in the years ahead, against of 43% who do not; that 27% of e-book readers seek lower prices; 14% seek a wider choice of titles; and 36% do not know what they expect.
The survey, conducted by OpinionWay for the French writers collection agency Sofia, the publishers association Syndicat National de l’Edition (SNE) and the authors society Société des Gens de Lettres (SGDL), shows that e-book readers owning a tablet has almost doubled in the past year to 42% from 23%, and that 18% intend to buy one in the next six months.
Of all e-book readers, 27% said they read more since adopting a digital format, up from 22% last September, but 65% said their spending remained unchanged, against 60% six months ago.
Altogether 55% of the same group paid for most of their books, half of which were priced between €4 and €15, and 44% obtained most of their books free. Fifteen percent, or 2% of the population, admitted to piracy, and 54% of the 72% who had never downloaded books illegally said this was in order to respect authors’ rights.
The survey was carried out between 7th February and 20th February, among a representative sample of 2,009 of 15-year-olds and over, and among 503 e-book readers.