| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立政治大學 === 智慧財產研究所 === 99 === After Amazon launched Kindle in 2007, digital reading became the spotlight of the world and the eBook industry has been growing vigorously. However, digital content and e-readers are facing their own challenge respectively: high development cost but low duplicating cost. It is easy to copy the files on the internet, but it is difficult for the copyright owners to retrieve the deserved profit; as for the hardware, e-reader is facing the keen competition of tablets and smart phones and is no longer attractive to customers on the market. Under these challenging circumstances, how can each entity on the supply chain of E-book industry react and maximize their profits? This research assumes that free business model would be one of the possible solutions. In this research, “iPod” and “Zero-Price Handset” are selected as two different types of case study. This research tries to figure out what the key successful factors are in these two cases and discusses how these factors can fit in the eBook industry and the possibility of creating success or achieving their goal. If the answer is positive, then what the business model would be?
This research shows that “Free digital content, Hardware sales as profit source” model cannot work in eBook industry. The main reason would be that the net profit of hardware cannot compensate the shortage of free digital content. On the other hand, the net profit of selling digital content would definitely compensate the shortage of free hardware, because the sales of digital content are continuous instead of one-time sale. What is more, free hardware could attract more potential customer and accumulate a huge amount of customer base. This model would be one of the possible solutions. This research also points out that educational and commercial market are niche markets for eBook companies and they should set strategies aggressively base on that fact.
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