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Subscription E-Book Service 'A Success' In Germany

This article is more than 8 years old.

In the midst of intense debate regarding the sustainability of subscription e-book services in America, Skoobe, an e-book subscription provider based in Germany, is proclaiming success since its launch in 2012.

Subscription platforms for e-books have been the subject of much conversation in the publishing industry for a while, as startups have opened and closed with near-certainty since ebooks gained in popularity. Last month, one of the three most popular platforms remaining, Oyster, shuttered and its team moved to Google Books. In July, Scribd reduced the number of romance titles available, due to the high volume at which subscribers presumably read those titles. This recent movement has sparked an increase in doomsday analyses of the subscription e-book model.

How can Skoobe claim to be successful in a niche market many say is on its way out?

To start, the company was founded by two of Germany's largest trade publishers (Bertelsmann SE & Co. and George von Holtzbrinck Publishing Group) which also happen to be the parent companies of two of America's largest trade publishers ( Penguin Random House , where Bertelsmann controls a 53% stake, and Macmillan Publishers), likely making the deal to release 1,000 of Macmillan's older works to Skoobe fairly easy. Now, Skoobe offers 140,000 titles, in an array of languages--though Scribd and Oyster both offered about four times that in May.

In addition, as Skoobe CEO Constance Landsberg says, "more than a quarter of all readers in Germany are reading digitally, and more than 16% are interested in e-book subscription services." This figure could, of course, slip--in 2012 Pew released data indicating that 21% of adults had read an e-book in 2011, and by last month a frenzy of media reports claimed publishers' e-book profits were on the decline.

Germany's e-book adoption is far lower than that of the U.S., as Landsberg points out, so Skoobe's future is uncertain. Amazon's launch of Kindle Unlimited there, in 2014, could cannibalize some of Skoobe's sales as Amazon tweaks their offerings. Scribd, too, could play a larger role in the German subscription market.

Regardless, the model doesn't seem to be dying yet. It just remains to be seen who'll figure out the most sustainable way of orchestrating it.