Gift cards or prepaid cards, which could be used to buy digital products , became available years ago . They were practical if you wanted to give a song, a video, or an ebook as a gift. These cards became popular for video games and music, but they also made their way into the world of ebooks.
In Spain, the most prominent cards were those from Tagus , which could be used to purchase an ebook from the Tagus catalog. However, they didn't generate much buzz. This wasn't just the case in Spain, but also in the rest of the world.
Gift cards to buy ebooks are increasingly rare to see
Several users are reporting the closure of companies that produced these types of gift cards and services. This means that users are no longer giving these types of gift cards as gifts, or are simply opting for the only companies in the sector that still issue them: Google and Apple . These companies dominate the market thanks to their stores and still sell and distribute these gift cards, but the figures don't indicate that they dominate the ebook market, something in which Amazon still has a significant presence.
So it seems that users have stopped giving these types of gifts and are choosing other types more in line with the personality of the person being surprised, or are continuing with the tradition of a paper book, which is cheaper than an ebook.
In any case, I think the phenomenon of ebook gift cards has a major drawback in Spain and many other European countries: people don't usually give books as gifts because they don't know if the reader will like them , which discourages people from using this product. Personally, I think it's very interesting and it's a shame it's disappearing, but if users aren't using it, it's logical that it won't be around , don't you think?