Amazon has taken rather small baby steps towards expanding its presence outside the United States in recent months. The likes of Spain and the United Kingdom have gradually been targeted by Jeff Bezos’ company as newer markets, but they have invariably had to do with watered down versions of the US-centric Kindle Store so far.
Amazon launched a new section in its US Kindle store today called eBooks Kindle en Español, a new Spanish language eBook store for Spanish speakers in the US. It has a range of 30000 Spanish titles, including incredibly popular books such as The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, A Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and the recently filmed Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins. eBooks Kindle en Español also features the works of Nobel Prize winning authors such as Mario Vargas Llosa and Camilo Cela. You can even get over a thousand Spanish classics for free, according to Amazon’s press release.
The large body of great Spanish literature often loses its essence in translated versions, and the Spanish Kindle Store should set that right for anyone looking for the authentic, original style of the authors of famous Spanish books.
The new focus of Amazon on the Spanish demographic has also led to dedicated customer support in Spanish, along with new information and help pages which are completely in Spanish. Amazon is also looking to highlight the Spanish reading and navigation features in Kindle apps made for various platforms.
With the popularity of eBooks and eBook readers on the rise, Amazon is aiming to diversify the customers it targets. Spanish literature has a considerable following, and there’s little to suggest that Amazon has put a foot wrong with eBooks Kindle en Español.
[via Engadget]
