Audiobook & e-book streaming platform Voxa, launched in late 2021, clocked 160,000 subscribers in 2022, its first year, bringing in RON 4 million for the company. By March 2923 subscribers were up at 190,000.
Voxa’s newly-published report “Digital Book Market in Romania” looks at Romania’s ebook and audiobook market and concludes the value will top RON 50 million ($11 million) by 2025, and will take 10% market share.
That’s compared to RON 5 million ($1 million) in 2022 and just 1% market share.
Reporting for Romania-Inside, Irina Marica advises the Romania book market in total (inc. print) was worth RON 500 million ($111 million) in 2022, and quotes Voxa CEO Dan Vidrascu as quoting a World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) report from 2021:
“The digital format represented about 38% of total book sales in Japan, while in the US, the share of digital was almost 25%. In European countries, audiobooks and e-books represent up to 15% of the book market, with higher shares in the Nordic countries. These international trends are beginning to be reflected in the behaviour of local reading enthusiasts, and we see a growing demand for audiobooks in Romanian.”
Audiobook & e-book streaming platform Voxa, launched in late 2021, clocked 160,000 subscribers in 2022, its first year, bringing in RON 4 million for the company. By March 2923 subscribers were up at 190,000.
Read more from Romania-Insider here.
In April 2022 TNPS reported that Voxa, then led by co-founder Mester Catalin, was targetting 1 million euros turnover by 2023 and international expansion, starting with neighbouring Moldova.
Since then the global economic climate has steadily deteriorated, so expansion may be off the table right now, but the revenue target was hit.
In Romania, Voxa competes with AudioTribe for digital book lovers’ attention.
Romania has 15 million internet users in a population of 19 million. Compare Sweden’s 9.9 million (population 10 million) and ponder the possible trajectory.
Of course, we also need to consider a possible Swedish buyout, were either Storytel or Nextory to return to expansion mode, or, (less likely), one or the other entering Romania as a rival. Either way, the future of digital books in Romania looks good.
#Romaniabookmarket #Romaniapublishing #digitalsubscription #digitalstreaming
