In a period of confinement, digital reading explodes in France. Just look at the various articles on the subject that have been multiplying in the media over the past month.
Thus on April 12 the newspaper Le Figaro was wondering what equipment to choose to immerse himself in digital books. On the same day, France 3 Normandy recommended "?1460 digital books to survive at confinement?". And a week earlier, it's The World who questioned the choice of digital bookstores to buy his e-books.
Not to mention brands such as Fnac, Cultura, or the bookstore Le Furet du Nord, which offer thousands of titles for free downloading throughout the duration of the confinement.
There are also more advanced references such as Gallica, the e-book site of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France (BNF) or the Project Gutenberg website which offers a catalogue of 54?000 books for download.
In addition to free downloads, sales are also exploding. According to Weekly Books Most digital book sales platforms are currently experiencing increases in activity of 75% to 200%.
The figures published by the online reading platform Youbook speak for themselves: "?Plus of 100 new readers, more than 300% new subscribers per day, more than 80% of pages lues?".
For Hélène Mérillon, Founder and President of Youboox :
« ? The French's desire to escape is clearly expressed by the explosion of screen reading. All categories and all ages are concerned by this craze. ?»
A sudden infatuation that does not reflect the trend observed in recent years where the digital book was certainly growing but remained marginal.
It remains to be seen whether these new reading habits will continue after this exceptional period, or remain a parenthesis.
