After 110% growth in 2018 Bookbeat has upped its game in 2019 with 114% growth reported across its markets. Bookbeat’s $33 million revenue for 2019 compares with just $15.5 million in revenue in 2018.

Bookbeat CEO Niclas Sandin said in a press release,

2019 has been an incredible year for BookBeat. We have been on this exciting journey for four years now. We are achieving the big goals that we have set for ourselves and we are accelerating our growth and geographic expansion of the BookBeat service.

With over a quarter million users in 2019 Bookbeat has some way to go to compete with Storytel –

Storytel hits 1.1 million subscriber target, sees Q4 revenue rise 45%. Annual subscriber growth up 40% overall. Non-Nordic subscribers up 114%

or Scribd –

Scribd defies its critics. Hits 1 million subscribers

But Bookbeat’s growth is remarkable for being attributable to just three active markets – Sweden, Finland and Germany (Bookbeat is also in the UK, but is just treading water there as UK publishers have yet to grasp the potential of digital subscription).

Storytel of course dominates the Swedish market, with both Bookbeat and Nextory claiming second place.

But Bookbeat also asserts it is the number one player in Finland, and that it has the highest user growth in Germany.

Reminding us that Bookbeat is available after a fashion in 24 other countries (as part of the EU marketplace), the press release states that,

In 2020, the platforms will be localized in those markets that have shown the greatest potential up to that point, and the range of audio books in the respective national language will be further expanded in cooperation with the publishers there.

Bookbeat claims to be “the best audiobook service” in Sweden, Finland and Germany based on user reviews in the Apple and Google Play app stores.

Sandin added,

Now or in the near future, as an audiobook service across Europe, we will be facing competition from the largest and best providers. We are convinced that it will be important to focus on our niche and be the leader in the industry In 2019, we were able to establish ourselves well in this role and in 2020 it will continue to be a matter of designing a service that customers love and thus continuing our growth journey.