Flipkart launches e-books app for iOS, Windows Phone, browser

The apps will sync across all platforms; the company also plans to add Marathi and Bengali books by the next quarter

Flipkart currently has over 250,000 e-books in its digital catalogue, and plans to raise that to 1 million.

After a major funding round of $200 million last month, Flipkart’s next big announcement has been to widen its scope in the Indian e-book market. The company already had an Android app through which users could read e-books they bought via Flipkart. On Wednesday, it announced apps for iOS and Windows Phone, along with a browser-based reader, to read books on your computer. All the readers are free to download and use.

“Providing seamless content, regardless of platforms, will be a big part of our strategy to further strengthen this position and extend it to the digital space,” says Ravi Vora, senior vice-president, marketing. The apps will also sync across platforms, so you could read on your computer and then switch to your phone, without having to try and find your page. The apps will also let you read the first 10% of any book even before buying it.

“We’re particularly bullish on the iPad, which lends itself really well to reading, and today, you also see a wave of new, large-screened Android devices. Users now have a lot of options and it makes sense to be device agnostic, instead of tying your books to just one device,” says Mekin Maheshwari, head, payments and digital media.

Apart from the new readers, the company also announced that it will be focusing more closely on Indian language writing, and will work with publishers to digitize more books from Indian authors. As of now, Flipkart already has books available in Hindi and English. The company plans to add Marathi and Bengali books by the next quarter.

While Maheshwari wouldn’t share the total number of downloads or even titles on Indian language books, he feels that this is going to be a big area for future growth, particularly as more and more people start to use smart devices.

Flipkart entered the e-books space in November, around six months after their MP3 store launched, putting both under the Flyte banner. Flipkart exited the digital music space in May, owing to issues such as lack of buyer interest and issues with micropayments and piracy.

It’s worth noting that the problems of a small user base and piracy will be the case even with e-books. Maheshwari would not reveal the total number of users buying e-books from Flipkart, but believes that piracy is a smaller problem for books than it is for music. “Unlike music, books have never really been DRM (Digital Rights Management, a form of copy protection) free, so piracy isn’t a big issue. There were also fewer content models, like streaming, which definitely makes it easier to sell books.”

Flipkart currently has over 250,000 e-books in its digital catalogue, and plans to raise that to 1 million. “We’ve been working with local publishers, helping them to digitize their catalogues. We’ve already got the best reach in Indian authors writing in English, and guys like Amish (Tripathi) and Chetan Bhagat, whose physical books sell well. They’ve also been highly successful in the digital format. The other big thing for us is going to be the support of more Indian languages. Our technology is in place, now we’re helping the publishers to get the content to us.”

The company already sells a smattering of Hindi e-books, and will be expanding this catalogue, besides adding Marathi and Bengali language books in the next quarter. As more publishers come on board, Flipkart will add more languages too.

While all these updates might make the app more appealing to users, some of the issues that were faced by the MP3 store remain. Apart from that, there is also competition from Amazon.com Inc.—the company has a long history in this space, and its prices are very competitive. It already offers many of the same features that Flipkart is now bringing, and if you already have a history of buying e-books from Amazon, or own one of the popular Kindle e-book readers, then you’re locked into the Amazon market, and wouldn’t want to buy from a second seller.