“Currently, Kindle sales are at their highest in over a decade, with 20 billion pages read every month,” Panay claims. “And it turns out that the majority of this new demographic are Millennials and Gen Z, which are the fastest growing demographic.”
Kevin Keith went further and explained that while social media used to be a distraction from books, it is now the driving force behind selling Kindles to new, younger readers. He said this has a lot to do with the “BookTok” phenomenon, a hashtag that includes people sharing book reviews and recommendations on TikTok, which has amassed around 39 million videos and more than 200 billion views. is accumulating.
“There’s definitely a bit of a TikTok/BookTok effect right now, but this also extends to Reels, Instagram and Facebook,” Keith says. Whereas headwinds used to keep people from reading, now they are actually driving people to read. ”
“It’s been more than two years since we’ve seen this kind of growth rate,” he added. “Sales are the highest they’ve been in a decade, and this comes after several years of double-digit growth.”
Data suggests this may be the start of a broader trend, with the e-reader market expected to start growing again between now and 2029. In this, Panay argues, it is important to maintain the emotional connection between the reader and the book. This is why people are accepting a $120 price increase on the best-selling Kindle Paperwhite.
“The value is not in how the device looks or feels,” he says without hesitation. “What’s valuable is the emotion you can elicit from a color screen. Right now it’s a choice, and that’s what’s beautiful about it. If you want color, it’s readily available.”
It remains to be seen whether coming late will work out better for Kindle, but Panay hopes that emotional connection will play a role. In an over-connected world, Kindle is a sanctuary for users, a device free of distractions and notifications, he says. Of course, books have been doing that for centuries.
“That sanctuary is very real,” Panay says. “You pick up a book[on your Kindle]and start reading. There’s no multitasking, because you disappear in that moment. We need that part of us now more than ever. I’m here.”
