Bonnier Invests in Digital Books with BookBeat

BookBeat is the name of a new service in Sweden under development by Bonnier Books. With BookBeat, users can read e-books or listen to audio books directly in their smart phones, whenever and wherever. An enormous catalog of books, a mix of classics and a selection of the latest releases will be available via the app.

“Bonnier Books has seen how the market for digital books has grown,” says Niclas Sandin, CEO for BookBeat. “BookBeat is a way to be part of this and drive development.”

BookBeat aims to get more readers and listeners by improving and simplifying the experience. “Our primary target group are those who haven’t yet read an e-book or listened to an audiobook, or that they don’t have the time to read,” says Sandin.

That BookBeat has already been compared to Storytel, the Scandinavian-Dutch streaming audiobook service, is natural says Sandin.

“There’s nothing wrong with being compared to someone who’s done great things in driving the development of the market, and there will certainly be some similarities between the services to begin with,” says Sandin. “However, we believe the market will grow and consist of more than those who are already using and appreciating Storytel. Our focus isn’t on how we differ today but on how we reach the market in the long run by creating the best service possible.”

BookBeat will be driven as a startup, separate from Bonnier Books’ other operations.

“For Bonnier Books, it was important to create a completely new business that will focus solely on developing BookBeat, both now before launching but even over the long term,” says Sandin. “All the team members will be part of the journey to create something from scratch and take responsibility for dealing with all the successes and challenges we’ll experience along the way.”

The first version of BookBeat will be released to a limited customer group at the end of the year. A broader launch will be made in stages during 2016. The books will mostly be Swedish.

Anyone curious about BookBeat can go to bookbeat.com already now and apply to test the service as the launch gets closer.

Interested in working for BookBeat?

The Stockholm office is now recruiting for several positions. You can find the individual positions available at www.bonnier.com/job-career/jobs.