Amazon will shutter its Chinese Kindle store next year.
Readers in China will no longer be able to purchase new ebooks as of June 30, 2023, but they can download purchased books for another year. Amazon will remove the Kindle application from Chinese app stores in 2024, Reuters reports. The company has already stopped supplying retailers with Kindle ebook readers.
The tech giant—which joins Airbnb, LinkedIn, Uber, and Yahoo in leaving the Chinese market lately—said its exit is not due to government pressure or censorship.
"We remain committed to our customers in China," an Amazon spokesperson told Reuters. "As a global business, we periodically evaluate our offerings and make adjustments, wherever we operate. With our portfolio of businesses in China, we will continue to innovate and invest where we can provide value to our customers."
Amazon ended its e-commerce business in China in 2019, citing domestic rivals Alibaba and JD.com. Its Kindle business now faces competition from local players like Xiaomi, iFlytek, and Huawei, all of which have released their own ereaders, the Financial TimesFinancial Times notes.
More than 500 million people listened to or read books on a digital device in 2021 in China, according to data from the China Audio-video and Digital Publishing Association, the FT says. The market generated more than $6 billion in sales last year, up more than 18% from 2020.