Mexico: the Americas' top Spanish-language market
During the first year of the COVID-19 outbreak, e-book sales in Mexico skyrocketed by nearly 60 percent. When considering all electronic titles (regardless of their language), the 2020 result amounted to 368 million Mexican pesos. The sharp rise followed a constant increase in e-book penetration among Mexican readers throughout the second half of the 2010s. The share doubled between 2018 and 2021, when it surpassed 21 percent. A more recent study, conducted in April 2022, suggests that another format may also flourish in Mexican soil. Almost one of five internet users surveyed in that country said they listened to audiobooks, placing this product among the top four most-listened-to types of digital audio content in Mexico.Brazil: the massive Portuguese-speaking market
Usually excluded from Latin American rankings on the e-book trade due to its core linguistic heritage, Brazil saw digital book sales revenue grow by about 23 percent in 2021. It reached approximately 181 million Brazilian reals (or 28 million euros at December 31, 2021 exchange rates). E-books accounted for the vast majority of digital book copies sold in the Brazilian market. But audiobooks gained some momentum as their share went from 1.88 percent in 2020 to 2.13 percent in the following year. Similarly, the percentage of internet users downloading e-books in Brazil remained, on average, mostly the same from 2018 to 2022. But there were increases in the 16-34 age group, indicating that the next generations are likely to catch up with the trend and consume more literature on screen rather than on paper.
