Amazon has launched Prime Reading for Prime members in India. The service is available on Amazon’s Kindle e-reader and Kindle app, as well as the 2MB Kindle Lite app. The library consists of a selection of e–books in Indian languages, which is available as part of the Prime membership at no additional cost. Incidentally, Amazon launched the Kindle Lite app in March this year and is being pitched as an India-first product designed for users with 2G/3G networks. Amazon Prime currently costs Rs 999 for a one-year-plan, and Rs 129 for a monthly subscription. With e-books, Amazon has added to existing content products Amazon Prime Video and Amazon Prime Music for subscribers. Amazon Prime Video had been looking to expand its offerings in vernacular languages to gain an edge over competitors. It already has a library of movies in five Indian languages. Amazon Prime Music launched in February this year. Prime Music has content deals with music labels such as T-Series, Venus Music, Sony Music, Saregama, and Zee Music Company. In April this year, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos publicly revealed that the company had more than 100 million paid Prime members globally. He did not mention Indian Prime subscribers separately. However, senior VP and CFO Brian Olsavsky said that sign-ups for Prime memberships in the first year were higher in India than for any other country. It is worth noting that Amazon also offers another subscription based reading service called, Kindle Unlimited. Unlike prime reading, this service offers users unlimited access to over a million ebooks at a monthly charge of Rs.150.
