By Carlo Carrenho, Contributing Editor
Among the news of the week: the latest figures from China suggest a shift in how people are buying books; book sales in Germany declined in 2025, but increased in Portugal; and Ghana looks to advance a state level publishing strategy.Why China Needs Fewer Shelves (Physical or Digital) to Sell Books
Beijing News journalist He An’an reports that China’s book retail market declined 2.24% in 2025 to 110.4 billion yuan ($15.4 billion). But the bigger story may be what looks to be a decisive shift in how books are being sold.
Citing the preliminary release of OpenBook‘s Book Retail Market Trend Insights Report, content-driven e-commerce (that is, sales generated via short video and livestream platforms such as Douyin (known as TikTok internationally) rose 30.43% year over year, reaching 40.53% market share and overtaking shelf-based retail for the first time. Platform e-commerce players including JD.com and Dangdang saw sales fall 22.67%, while physical bookstores declined 4.63%.
The shift is reinforced by a recent report in China Publishing Today, which showed the Xinhua Bookstore Group grew its online sales in the Hubei province from 150 million yuan ($20.9 million) in 2018 to 2 billion yuan ($279 million) in 2025, highlighting how even the country’s largest state-run bookseller with 13,000 stores is adapting to content-led market.
China now distinguishes clearly between content-driven and shelf-driven sales. This split—between algorithm-led discovery and active, selection-based purchasing—offers a sharper way to read consumer behavior and could be instructive for other markets. With content-driven channels already accounting for about 40% of sales in China, the implications for marketing, sales, and acquisition strategies are significant.
Bookwire, now Zebralution
Germany’s collecting society GEMA has confirmed the sale of its 100% stake in Zebralution to New York–based Insight Partners, according to Germany’s trade magazine MusikWoche. The transaction, which is still subject to approval by the German Federal Cartel Office, places the Berlin-based digital distributor (which is active across music, audiobooks, podcasts, and e-books) under the control of the same equity fund that acquired a majority stake in Bookwire last October, in a deal that was approved by Austrian regulators.
With Insight Partners now controlling both Zebralution and Bookwire, the move raises significant strategic questions for the German (and the broader European) digital distribution market. The two companies currently compete—not only in Germany but also in markets such as the UK—alongside other digital aggregators and distributors. The key issue is whether they will continue to operate independently, be merged, or be repositioned with distinct strategic focuses. A further question is whether this marks the start of a broader consolidation strategy, with Insight Partners, a $100 billion fund, potentially pursuing additional acquisitions in digital distribution or adjacent technology sectors.
Germany’s Book Market Down 5% in 2025
Germany’s print book market closed 2025 with revenues down 2.9% year over year, according to Branchen-Monitor BUCH data from the Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels, analyzed by Elise Mischke. Unit sales fell 4.9% while the average book price rose 2.1% to €16.52 ($18.00), amid weak consumer confidence and ongoing economic pressure. Fiction was the only category to show nominal growth, up 1.3% while non-fiction declined sharply without a late-2024 blockbuster comparable to Angela Merkel’s memoir.
Adjusted for inflation, however, the picture is more negative. According to Statistisches Bundesamt (Destatis), Germany’s average inflation rate in 2025 was 2.2%, implying a real-terms revenue decline of roughly 5%, closely mirroring the drop in unit sales. On that basis, even fiction posted negative real growth, underscoring that price increases, rather than demand, were the main factor cushioning revenues in an otherwise contracting market.
Portugal’s Book Market Finds Color in 2025—But Is Cautious to Celebrate
According to PublishNews, citing data from GfK and the Portuguese Association of Publishers and Booksellers (APEL), Portugal’s book market grew 7.6% in value and 6.9% in units in 2025, reaching about €217.5 million ($236 million) from sales of 14.8 million books. Much of the increase was driven by the exceptional performance of coloring books, prompting APEL president Miguel Pauseiro to caution against mistaking cyclical consumption trends for structural growth in reading. The figures cover January–December 2025 and are based on GfK’s consumer panel, which covers an estimated 85% of the Portuguese market.
According to Statistics Portugal (INE), Portugal’s average annual Consumer Price Index increase in 2025 was about 2.3%, putting real growth at a still impressive 5.2%. APEL’s caution is well-founded, but even if the growth is largely driven by coloring books, sustaining booksellers and keeping the publishing ecosystem financially healthy is certainly preferable to contraction—and that, at least, is a result worth raising a glass of good port wine to.
Feltrinelli’s First Passport Stamp: Uruguay
Italian bookstore chain Feltrinelli will open 
its first bookstore outside of Italy, with the announcement of a new megastore in Montevideo, Uruguay, set to open in April. According to Lorenzo Herrero, reporting for PublishNews Spain, the move is positioned as the first step in a broader regional strategy that points to future openings in Buenos Aires, Santiago, and Mexico City. Feltrinelli operates 112 points of sale across Italy, employs around 2,000 people, and sells roughly 17 million books annually through a range of retail formats. The group is also the majority shareholder in Spanish bookstore chain La Central.
European bookstore chains have traditionally had limited presence in Latin America, with rare past exceptions such as Fnac in Brazil, making Feltrinelli’s arrival in Uruguay particularly notable. The expansion could help broaden and strengthen the local bookselling landscape, but it also raises questions about its impact on established domestic players such as Bookshop and Grupo Libros. It is also striking that Brazil was not mentioned among Feltrinelli’s target markets, given the recent contractions in its bookselling sector there. Finally, the decision to expand under the Feltrinelli brand—rather than through La Central—may reflect the strong Italian cultural familiarity in Uruguay and Argentina, where the name resonates with local audiences.
Skeelo Now Speaks Spanish
Brazilian audiobook and e-book platform Skeelo plans to invest $85 million in the publishing market over the next five years, reports Brazil Economy. Founded in 2019, the company closed 2025 with revenues of $27 million and is targeting $85 million in sales by 2027. Roughly 80% of the investment will go toward content acquisition, expanding its catalog beyond 200,000 titles. Skeelo’s international expansion began in Mexico late last year, with $11.3 million earmarked for investment there in 2026 alongside potential moves into Argentina, Colombia, and Peru.
Skeelo’s growth in Brazil was driven by a B2B2C fiscal strategy that bundled digital books into offerings from large corporate clients—particularly telecom operators—leveraging Brazil’s tax exemption on books, including digital formats. This model made books an attractive tool for partners’ tax planning while simultaneously jump-starting the local audiobook market and supporting the development of a broader Brazilian audiobook catalog ahead of mass consumer demand. With no major platform effectively scaling across Latin America—and competitors such as Storytel not prioritizing the region—Skeelo appears well-positioned to adapt its Brazilian playbook to neighboring markets.
Kadokawa Draws Its Sword on Vertical Publishing
Kadokawa announced that its Kadocomi manga app—a joint venture with Dwango—surpassed 2 million cumulative downloads as of December 2025, roughly 18 months after launching in May 2024. The platform has grown from around 100 titles at launch to more than 1,400 works across over 60 labels, with close to 1,500 titles expected soon. Kadocomi now hosts more than 800 serialized titles spanning genres such as isekai, romance, horror, suspense, and gourmet. Its business model redistributes around 60% of advertising revenue to creators and rights holders, in addition to income from paid distribution.
Kadocomi’s rapid growth highlights the strength of Japan’s manga market (the app is closed to third-party content) and also shows how Japan’s largest publishing group is pursuing vertical integration by controlling both content and distribution. This approach extends beyond manga, as Kadokawa also operates an in-house games division that goes beyond IP licensing to actively develop game content, making it a notable case of a publisher moving well beyond traditional roles.
Ghana Pursues State-Level Support for Publishers
According to The New Publishing Standard, Ghana’s publishing sector is moving toward a more structured policy environment with the proposed Ghana Book Development Agency legislation, which would establish Africa’s first comprehensive book development law, alongside a Textbook Development and Distribution Policy. Together, the measures aim to formalize how books—particularly educational titles—are developed, approved, and distributed in a market where government remains the dominant buyer, accounting for around 85% of publishing activity. The policy push comes as the government allocates GH₵3 billion (about $450 million) in its 2026 budget for educational infrastructure, including large-scale textbook procurement.
The most important development here is Ghana’s effort to create a comprehensive book law. This is essential for any market seeking a genuine state book development policy, rather than leaving the sector exposed to the fluctuations of changing governments. Long-term planning—for publishing as well as for reading promotion—depends on stable, plurianual frameworks that allow countries to pursue sustained goals beyond electoral cycles. Markets with long-term book and reading policies tend to operate more efficiently and strategically. Kudos to Ghana for taking this step.
What Else Caught My Eye
A company: Mutolaa, an Uzbek e-book and audiobook platform launched in December 2023, is approaching 4 million users in a country of 37 million people.
An event: AnimeJapan 2026 returns to Tokyo Big Sight on 28–31 March, featuring expanded halls, 120+ exhibitors, and dedicated business days.
An article: Arantxa Mellado published a fantastic deep-dive analysis of Spain’s mass-market paperback segment.
A report: Rüdiger Wischenbart released an updated and expanded edition of The Global 50 Ranking, with a detailed overview of the world’s largest publishing companies.
A podcast: The Straight Download is a recently launched podcast by U.S.-based digital library platform Hoopla that courageously discussing some of the thorny issues in the digital library market.
The author of this column loves a Uruguayan chivito as much as a risotto alla Milanese. He has never made a TikTok video, but his children love manga. He prefers white Port wine to red, purely out of contrarian instinct.