It’s one year since Storytel went head to head with Amazon’s Audible in Italy, and so far Storytel are keeping their consumer numbers quiet, but are more profligate with the catalogue figures.
Having kicked off with just 1,300 Italian titles and “tens of thousands” of English-language titles it was clear Audible Italy was not going to lose sleep over the new entrant.
At that time Stefan Tegenfalk, Head of Expansion at Storytel, said,
The Italian audio-book market hasn’t been fully developed yet, but the subscription model is well-established thanks to film and music services, which is why we judge this to be a promising market for audio books. At the moment we’re offering an Italian-language catalogue of just over 1,300 audio books, as well as tens of thousands of titles in English from leading publishers. We’ll also be releasing about twenty-five audio books each month, produced in-house in our own studios in Milan, as well as in other studios.
Today, reports Italy’s Engage, referencing a Storytel Italy press release,
The catalog of the platform has tripled in Italy, reaching over 65,000 titles in English and around 4,000 in Italian, including many exclusives, in addition to 60,000 ebooks in English that can be read directly from the application. An offer that is now enriched by the Spanish language with 3000 titles, reports the statement.
In addition, the Storytel offer includes podcasts on current topics and Originals, a series of fictions in audio format that will debut with the first two titles on July 16th. A collaboration with the Corriere della Sera is active.
Storytel Italy’s Country Manager Marco Ferrario said,
Storytel arrived in Italy a year ago bringing with it all the experience of a large group present in 17 countries in the world, with new launches planned by 2019, including Brazil and South Korea. During this year we have achieved very important milestones by overcoming the goals we had been assigned.
In June 2018 TNPS noted:
While the unlimited subscription model is likely to prove popular with Italian consumers, the bigger questions are
a) how many publishers will come on board for this model, anf
b) how will Amazon react if Italian publishers engage enough to make Storytel Italy a serious competitor?
One year on and those questions look like they’ll need at least a few more years before we will learn the answers.
Meanwhile Storytel has just gone head to head with Amazon in Germany –
Storytel launches in Germany, leaving Brazil, Thailand and South Korea to come for 2019
where once again it will take a few years to get any meaningful assessment of the impact.
The only other market where Storytel and Audible clash in the audiobook arena is India, where Storytel had a year’s head start.
Sweden’s Storytel beats Amazon’s Audible to the India audiobook market
