Book-selling site AbeBooks.com reached a milestone in September when it reached 100 million books in inventory listed on the site. When a bookseller uploaded "A Checklist of the Vertebrate Animals of Kansas" to AbeBooks.com on September 21, it marked the first time the website's inventory had ever reached 100,000,000 books.
Inventory on AbeBooks comes from 13,500 participating booksellers, with the average seller posting 7,400 listings, up from 6,500 listings in 2005. The website's database has grown by up to 17 million books a year for the past three years.
AbeBooks.com said it is celebrating the landmark by unveiling a new corporate logo and by announcing that it will integrate inventory from Iberlibro.com, a Spanish rare and used book online marketplace acquired in 2004, into the AbeBooks.com database by the end of the year. Iberlibro.com's inventory will add more than two million Spanish books to AbeBooks.com. Since being acquired, Iberlibro.com has operated as a standalone website with its books listed in a separate database. Customers looking for books on Iberlibro.com will have access to the entire AbeBooks.com inventory.
AbeBooks will also launch an Italian website (www.abebooks.it) in the new year. More than 50 Italian booksellers, including Deastore, Firenzelibri and Libroco, already list over a million books on the site. AbeBooks currently has dedicated websites for North America, UK, France, Germany and a micro-site for Australia and New Zealand. The company said development of the Italian and Spanish markets illustrates its commitment to international growth.
AbeBooks.com President and CEO Hannes Blum said in a press release announcement, "The selection keeps growing and that attracts buyers because they know they're going to find the book they want. We anticipate that our booksellers will list well in excess of 100 million in the years ahead. We remain committed to books and booksellers, and have no intention of moving into other areas. Our focus continues to be on expanding our selection around the globe. There is great potential in Italy and we've been targeting Spanish speakers for two years with Iberlibro, so Europe is a key area of growth."
http://www.abebooks.com
