‘Reading Nation’: Online Bookstores Buckle Under Buyer Surge After Ukrainians Start Receiving ‘1,000 for Vaccination’

Bookstores report a many-fold surge in buyers.

On the evening of December 16, three Ukrainian banks began transferring 1,000 hryvnias for COVID vaccination under the “ePidtrymka” (“eSupport”) program.

Using this money, Ukrainians began buying books en masse, and bookstore websites “crashed,” said Minister of Culture and Information Policy Oleksandr Tkachenko.

Oleksandr Tkachenko
Minister of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine

The eSupport program launched in test mode. Thousands of people received payments yesterday, and the process is ongoing. Even so, we are already seeing positive dynamics: people are spending money on books. And so massively that bookstore websites could not withstand the flood and crashed. Whatever anyone says, this is a good incentive to raise reading levels in Ukraine. I hope this momentum can be maintained afterward.

Minister of Digital Transformation Mykhailo Fedorov also reported the bookstore outages, noting that “we are a reading nation.”

As Liga.Tech reports, the websites of two of the largest bookstores, Yakaboo and “Ye,” periodically failed to load due to the outages. 

Andrii Domaranskyi
development director, Knyharnia “Ye” 

The traditional pre-New Year rush coincided with the state’s 1,000-hryvnia payments, so online stores naturally faced a storm of orders. This is a pleasant load, but of course such moments do not pass without complications. One way or another, everyone will get their books!

He did not specify how much traffic to the “Ye” website had increased, citing commercial secrecy. 

Oksana Zyobro
head of the marketing department, Vydavnytstvo Staroho Leva

Yesterday’s revenue of the online store of Vydavnytstvo Staroho Leva was twice the average for this period. This is directly linked to the first crediting of the 1,000 hryvnias. It is valuable that among various options for spending this money, people are choosing books, and in particular, our publishing house.

The Yakaboo website also faced disruptions due to heightened attention from holders of the 1,000 hryvnia payment. 

Many customers of the site already report that they managed to make purchases and are pleased to have bought New Year gifts. Some write that while they were placing their orders, certain books went out of stock. 

Ivan Bohdan
head of the Yakaboo book platform

The number of people wanting to buy books grew after Ukrainians began receiving 1,000 hryvnias in their accounts under the eSupport program, as well as on the eve of St. Nicholas Day. The greatest demand was for children’s literature, as well as nonfiction and fiction. We believe such an active stance by Ukrainians in buying books is a very positive signal for the book market and real support for Ukrainian publishers and authors.