Since the Q3 results announcement BookBeat has been uncharacteristically silent about its Q4 and End of Year results, as has, coincidentally, rival Sweden-based operator Nextory. Unlike their bigger rival Storytel, neither BookBeat nor Nextory are obliged to issue public results, but both have previously been very keen to offer at least percentage numbers each quarter, begging the question whether the sudden radio silence portends a downturn in expectations and targets.
Apologies for being almost a week late with this report, due to on-going electricity and internet challenges here in The Gambia, West Africa, but in keeping with the TNPS mission to track the digital transition this story warrants some late cyber-ink.
It was back in summer 2021 that BookBeat launched in Austria and Switzerland riding on its German-language content offered on BookBeat DE, and that was followed by a launch in Norway in December, and now the Netherlands and Belgium join the list.
That takes BookBeat’s localised market presence to eleven markets although the BookBeat press release coyly says they are the ninth and tenth, showing BookBeat is still shy about its UK site, which it prefers not to mention. But for the record, BookBeat now operates in Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark, Germany, Poland, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, Netherlands and the UK, with notional reach across the EU.
The two new additions clearly focus on Dutch-language content for both the Dutch and Belgian markets (only Nextory, of the Big 3 Scandinavian subscription services, is in France). Josefin Nordin will act as Country Manager for both the Netherlands and Belgium, but operating from Sweden as it would seem from her LinkedIn profile.
At end January BookBeat announced a partnership with Dutch publisher VBK Uitgevers that would onboard 1,800 audiobooks for the then imminent new service launch, taking the BookBeat title count to 600,000 audiobooks and ebooks, although there is no indication as to the ratio of the two formats.
Throughout 2020 and 2021 BookBeat plied us with quarterly reports announcing unquestionably impressive percentage gains in subscriber numbers, the last time being the Q3 2021 results announced in October.
Some might care to note the target 600,000 subscribers for end 2021, and the fact that the new press release for the Belgium and Netherlands launch in 2022 states BookBeat has “nearly” 600,000 subscribers, suggesting that BookBeat pulled in fewer than 100,000 new subscribers since the Q2 results were announced.
At that time BookBeat told us it has just crossed the half million subscriber mark, and that 100,000 each were from Sweden, Finland and Germany.
Since the Q3 results announcement BookBeat has been uncharacteristically silent about its Q4 and End of Year results, as has, coincidentally, rival Sweden-based operator Nextory. Unlike their bigger rival Storytel, neither BookBeat nor Nextory are obliged to issue public results, but both have been very keen to offer at least percentage numbers each quarter, begging the question whether the sudden radio silence portends a downturn in expectations and targets.
That would not be entirely surprising. BookBeat operates in direct competition with rivals Storytel and Nextory in many of its European markets, while the Austria, Switzerland and Norway launches are all too recent to have any significant impact on BookBeat’s performance.
