Amazon will close its Chinese ebook store next year, marking the latest retreat as western technology companies scale back operations in the world’s largest consumer market, reports the Financial Times.
Kindle users in China will no longer be able to purchase new books following the closure of its online bookstore in June 2023, Amazon announced on Thursday. The company said that it had stopped supplying dealers with Kindle eBooks and offered a refund for customers who purchased a device in 2022.
Amazon did not give a reason for its retreat from the Chinese ebook market, once an important source of sales. In 2016, three years after Amazon started selling its devices in China, the country became the largest market for Kindle devices. The company has since lost market share to domestic rivals that launched their own ereader devices, including Xiaomi, iFlytek and Huawei.