Glenn, what was the name of the US distributor who gave Amzn books in exchange for stock in 1998?
If I recall they made a huge profit on that deal.;-)
>Tokyo, Oct. 31 (Bloomberg) -- Amazon.com Inc., the largest Internet retailer, said it will hold a press conference in Tokyo tomorrow as it pushes into overseas markets.
The Seattle-based company is expected to announce it will start a Japanese-language online bookstore in time for the Christmas shopping season, local media reported. Chief Executive Jeff Bezos will attend.
Bill Curry, a company spokesman, declined to comment. The company already has Web sites geared toward shoppers in the U.K., France and Germany.
Internet book sales in Japan are expected to surge to 200 billion yen ($1.84 billion) in 2004, up from 5 billion yen last year, according to e-Research Co. Still, that would be just an 8 percent share of the book market in the world's second-largest economy, e-Research said.
Amazon will run up against other online bookstores already operating in Japan. Competitors will include Kinokuniya Co., an 85- store chain that operates in Japan and overseas, and BOL Japan Inc., the Japanese online arm of Bertelsmann AG, Europe's largest media company.
The company plans to sell books, music compact discs, video- game software and toys through its Japanese-language site. It opened a customer service center in Sapporo in August in preparation for the move, the Daily Yomiuri reported last week.
Osakaya Co., one of Japan's major book wholesalers, has been working with Amazon to help the retailer get Japanese books, said Ken Ogawa, a company spokesman. He declined to say if the Osaka- based distributor will expand its role with Amazon.
Oct/31/2000 5:13 ET |
