Budapest, October 17, 2013 15:30

Magyar Telekom in partnership with ’txtr launches an e-book webshop. The e-book webshop available at http://hu.txtr.com/ presents one of the largest assortments among e-book webshops operated in Hungary: visitors can choose from more than 700 thousand foreign and 3,000 Hungarian language books.

„Further to high quality telecommunication services, Telekom considers it a strategic priority to offer a complete user experience through a rich assortment of digital contents. Providing a wide-ranging assortment of both Hungarian and foreign e-books available also on mobile devices we intend to make ever more people familiar with the experience of reading” – said Róbert Pataki, chief business development officer of Telekom.

Registration on the http://hu.txtr.com/ site is free, entering only requires a username and password or Facebook ID. Users create their own digital bookshelf to store their books purchased and they can download those on their mobile terminals – smartphones or tablets. In addition to books purchased, registered members can also store books from other sources. Books available on the digital bookshelf can even be uploaded to any existing e-book reader.

Books purchased and uploaded in the webshop are also freely available in the ’txtr applications. Using the applications one can read comfortably even on mobile devices. Similarly to the webshop, one can log in the application by producing a user name and password or the Facebook ID. The application is available with smartphones running Android 2.3 (and above), iOS 5.0 (and above) or Windows 8 operation systems. Downloading and using the application generates data traffic, however reading the books downloaded generates no additional data usage.

The application is available in the Google Play store: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.txtr.android
while in Apple Store: https://itunes.apple.com/hu/app/txtr/id564715781?mt=8

Currently card payment is accepted in the webshop, later however other payment solutions of Telekom will also be integrated.

The operator makes the introduction of the webshop even more attractive with a 7 weeks raffle game: each week a Samsung Galaxy Tab3 8.0 LTE tablet is raffled out among those registering on the hu.txtr.com site between October 17 and December 4, 2013. Moreover each week a different publisher’s books are offered on a discounted price, until the end of the year.

Background

Current situation on the Hungarian e-book market

Based on a recent research[1] conducted by Magyar Telekom significant demand is forecasted in the e-book market in the near future. Research shows that the main barrier of buying is the Hungarian language offer. Education is also considered important, because there is uncertanity regarding devices.

Currently e-book reader penetration among internet users is 6% (approximately 265 000). Based on the representative research 7% of internet users plan to buy e-reader device in the near future. E-book readers use their dedicated e-book reader devices for reading, however those who does not own one prefer tablets and smartphones more and more.

[1]TNS Hoffmann - E-book research December 2012.