The growing popularity of online reading has driven the growth of digital libraries, and those
resources now hold an amazing collection of literary works, research materials, online articles
and content. Business has quickly joined this digital revolution, creating and posting a massive
library of digital content – from traditional corporate brochures and technical materials to client-
specific documentation, user manuals, newsletters, promotions and other materials. Many
companies now also produce digital content that is sold as a primary or secondary product.

Research proves that online publishing is the wave of the future.

According to the International Digital Publishing Forum and the Association of American
Publishers (AAP), the sale of eBooks grew from $1.6 million in 2002, to more than $37.5 million
in 2008. In October, 2009, those two organizations issued a study showing the sale of U.S.
trade eBooks up by 254% compared to the previous year’s performance. In its August, 2009,
edition, Publisher’s Weekly reviewed a dozen devices designed specifically for reading
electronic text.




Growth of the World Wide Web



The Internet is quickly becoming the main source for business,

communications, and social interaction.



 Google Search has discovered one trillion unique URLs,

and a separate March, 2009, study showed there were at

least 25.21 billion pages on the indexable Web.



 As of May, 2009, there were over 109.5 million websites in

operation, and of those, fully 74% were commercial or other

sites located in the popular .com domain.



 Information specialists at UC Berkeley estimate that the

world’s total yearly production of print, film, optical, and

magnetic content would require 1.5 billion gigabytes of

digital storage. They say it will soon be technologically

possible for the average person to access virtually all

recorded information.

 


Consumers now turn to the Web for news, information, and products. The Newspaper
Association of America cited data from Nielsen Online showing that average monthly unique
audiences for newspaper Websites grew by over 7.9 million, to 74.8 million visitors, when
compared to the previous year.

For any business, when your customers migrate to the Web, the only smart move is to follow
them online.

Savvy businesspeople are already using digital publishing to reduce marketing and production
costs, to reach new markets, and to drive greater sales and profits. But to realize the full
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