Kalahari is one of the leading online stores in Africa and sells books, CDs, cameras and other mass-market products. In its digital downloads section, inaugurated in March 2010, it offers a backlist of almost 220,000 e-books and 50 electronic magazines at various prices and in different formats,[1] by both African publishers – for example LAPA – as well as foreign ones – including Random House, among many others. The store has even developed an application for reading e-books on computers and mobile phones. With regard to the e-readers and tablets sold by Kalahari, the Samsung Galaxy is the most expensive – at around 1000 dollars –, while the British device Elonex is far more accessible – at 140 dollars.

Another significant platform in South Africa is Exclus1ve Books, belonging to the multimedia group Avusa. Since October 2010, Exclus1ves has been selling e-books in ePub or PDF format, like its competitor Kalahari. According to the renowned portal Book Southern Africa, most of Exclus1ves’ e-books come from the US aggregator Overdrive.[2]

Book Southern Africa has set up its own electronic bookstore, called Little White Bakkie (LWB), through Scribd. LWB sells files in PDF format with DRM, at the price set by the publisher. Of the total amount invoiced, 20% goes to Scribd, another 20% to LWB and the remaining 60% goes to the publisher. For the time being, given the payment limitations that exist in the case of Scribd, LWB’s content can only be bought from the US.

In the field of digital magazines, MyMag and CrushMagOnline are two of the more active examples and are also South African. Founded in 2007, the portal MyMag sells magazines in interactive Flash format, with discounts of up to 40% on the price of the printed issue. CrushMagOnline is a free publication on wine and food, also in Flash format, which offers recommendations, restaurant reviews and interviews with chefs. This famous publication incorporates plenty of multimedia material.[3]