Today, Amazon makes another move in global expansion with a launch in one of the biggest countries in the world (and their likely namesake destination) -Brazil.
Starting today, amazon.com.br is the new home to 1.4 million Kindle books priced in Reals. Of these 1.4 million titles, Amazon says that over 13,000 of them are in Portuguese.
Amazon is also bringing free Portuguese Kindle Reading Apps to the country, as well as opening up Kindle Direct Publishing for Brazilian independent authors to get their work published worldwide.
It’s important to note that as of now, the Kindle Store is the only Amazon operation that the company is taking to Brazil – no physical sales. Reuters previously reported on the reason for this type of launch, saying that “the all-digital approach will allow Amazon to minimize the risks that a bigger retail launch would imply in a country with notorious infrastructure shortcomings and a complex, costly tax system.”
Basically, Amazon is trying to not bite off more than they can chew in Brazil at the time, and an ebook-only launch seems like the way to do it.
So, Brazilians can now download Kindle books for their Android and iOS devices, as well as their Macs and PCs. And coming soon, the latest Kindle device will make its way into the country:
“We are excited to launch this new Kindle Store for Brazilian customers, offering the most popular best-selling books from many great Brazilian authors, all priced in Reais,” said Alexandre Szapiro, Vice President of Kindle, Amazon.com.br. “We’re also bringing our latest generation Kindle—the best-selling e-reader in the world—to Brazilian customers at a suggested retail price of R$299 in the coming weeks. With the launch of free Kindle reading apps in Portuguese, anyone who has an Android phone, Android tablet, iPhone or iPad, PC or Mac, can start reading Kindle books today.”