Kindle sales will be 10 percent of Amazon’s business in 2012, says Citi analyst

By Andrew Couts June 7, 2011

amazon-kindle — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Sales related to Amazon’s Kindle ereader will soon account for a full 10 percent of all sales made through the e-commerce giant, reports Citigroup Internet analyst Mark Mahaney in a research note that went out to investors earlier today.

Amazon is currently on track to sell about three times as many Kindle devices in 2011 as it did last year. Mahaney estimates that Amazon will sell 17.5 million Kindle units this year alone, which will account for $2.1 billion in revenue. He also expects Amazon to dole out 314 million e-books, up from 124 million in 2010, to make $1.7 billion in revenue. That will equal roughly 8 percent of Amazon’s total revenue for 2011.

kindle-ebooks-chart — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Next year, the numbers only go up. The quantity of Kindles sold will jump to 26 million, with e-book sales surging to a staggering total of 751.5 million for 2012. Mahaney says Kindle book sales will generate more revenue, about $3.7 billion, than Kindle devices themselves, which he says will bring in about $2.4 billion. Combined, Kindle-related sales will account for roughly $6.1 billion in revenue, which will make up 10 percent of Amazon’s total yearly revenue for 2012.

The jump in both Kindle sales and ebook sales will be boosted by a sub-$100 Kindle, which Mahaney says Amazon will release before the end of this year.

These numbers follow a recent report that Amazon now sells more Kindle books than print books. For every 100 analog books sold, Amazon says it sells 105 Kindle books. The company currently has more than a million titles in its repertoire.

Amazon says that the Kindle has accounted for the fastest year-on-year growth rate for Amazon’s US books business in 10 years.

“We had high hopes that this would happen eventually, but we never imagined it would happen this quickly—we’ve been selling print books for 15 years and Kindle books for less than four years,” said Amazon.com founder and CEO Jeff Bezos, in a statement. “We’re grateful to our customers for continuing to make Kindle the bestselling ereader in the world and the Kindle Store the most popular e-bookstore in the world.”

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