Figure with pictures – Newspaper Kommersant No. 50 (7495) dated 03/24/2023
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E-book services are expanding comic and manga libraries. Thus, the Stroky platform, which is part of MTS, plans to open a special section of comics by the end of 2023 and place at least 100 popular graphic works there by the end of 2024. In the Yandex service, Bookmate is also working on updating the comic book shelf. LitRes already has 1,200 publications, including manuals on the history of comics and their creation. The expansion of the segment will allow platforms to distribute novelties faster and push out pirates, who, against the backdrop of growing demand, began to actively distribute foreign comics with amateur translation, book market participants believe.
In the Stroky e-book service (part of MTS), they told Kommersant that by the end of 2023 they expect to open a comics section on the platform: “Now the developers are adapting the platform – it is important that users feel comfortable and convenient to read graphic formats in digital” .
MTS launched Stroky at the end of September 2022, investments in the project were not disclosed. The service purchases content from publishers (among its partners is the Eksmo-AST publishing group), and also publishes its own books.
Representatives of the service did not say how many volumes will be digitized at once, however, they noted that at the first stage, graphic works of the publishing house and partners will appear in Lines: “As for partner projects, a large amount of comics and manga are already being published in Russia, including foreign authors and publishers. But not everyone has digital rights, and some of those who do have no files.”
Now work is underway to systematize and evaluate the volume that can be launched this year, the Lines explained. By the end of 2024, the service expects to host at least 100 popular graphic works on the platform. There are no plans to release a separate application for comics and manga.
There are graphic novels on other platforms as well. So, in Bookmate (owned by Yandex) they said that the platform already has a comics section: “Now we are working on updating it, and soon it will be available to our subscribers again.”
General Director of the LitRes group of companies Sergey Anuryev noted that at the moment the service’s assortment includes more than 1.2 thousand titles in the comics and manga category, including manuals on the history of comics and their creation, which is 20% more than a year previously.
Mr. Anuriev at the same time notes that it is not easy for digital book services to compete in the segment of graphic works: “In order for a digital service to have a significant presence in this market and claim the leadership position, it needs to provide an assortment comparable either to the paper assortment of comics, or to what the user can find today on pirated resources. Both tasks imply active work with copyright holders to cover the assortment with digital rights, Mr. Anuryev explained.
In March, participants in the book market and marketplaces noted an increase in the interest of Russians in Asian comics: manga, manhwa and manhua. The situation led to the development of piracy schemes in this segment (see Kommersant of March 18). Pirates buy copies or download Internet versions of comics in Asia, supply them with translations from amateur groups on the Internet, print them in printers, and then sell them through marketplaces and classifieds without entering into licensing agreements with foreign copyright holders.
According to Kommersant’s interlocutors in the book market, the situation can be corrected primarily by the active work of book services with the copyright holders of graphic publications. Services also often benefit from the quality of digitized content, according to a Kommersant source in the industry, noting that “pirate” is famous for its “broken” image with numerous watermarks.
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