Swedish audiobook subscription service Storytel launched in its tenth country today, adding Iceland to an impressive list of nations that already includes Denmark, Finland, Norway, Netherlands, Poland, Russia, Spain and India, as well as Sweden itself.
This will come as no surprise to TNPS regulars. As reported here in January –
the Storytel home page included Iceland among a long list of targeted countries, including the US, UK, Austria, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Portugal, Romania, South Africa, Switzerland, Turkey and the UAE.
As also noted in that TNPS report, Storytel had recently made acquisitions in Turkey, Bulgaria and Iceland, the Icelandic deal being a buy-out of Skynjun, the Icelandic audio-book publisher and internet retailer.
As I’ll be reporting here later this week, Storytel’s plans in Bulgaria are also well advanced, and as reported here back in December –
Storytel dots the ‘i’s with an Italy launch pending, having just opened in India
an Italian launch is also likely soon.
In a press release Storytel CEO Jonas Tellander explained that books are an important part of Icelandic life, as our TNPS post on the Icelandic Book Flood will testify.
Announcing the EUR 200,000 ($247,000) Skynjun acquisition last September Tellander said,
Iceland is a small market in population but with a high consumption of per capita literature and high penetration as a percentage of subscriptions in film and music.
The Storytel Iceland site can be found here. It kicks off with 300 Icelandic titles and a further 30,000 in English. It’s not clear how many are audiobooks and how many ebooks.
