The Netherlands is experiencing a increase in the number of people who subscribe to e-book subscription service. In the past three months everyone in this sector saw a 49% increase in the number of new subscribers. The number of titles available for subscription services such as Kobo Plus, and Bliyoo Mate increased by 67%.
Last year the average user had a paltry selection of 11,943 e-book titles that were available to read, within a few short months this figure has grown to over 19,816. The growth seems to be linked to the service Kobo Plus, which launched in February could already has a vast catalog of over 16,000 Dutch titles.
Kobo Plus was developed in close collaboration with leading Dutch publishers. The subscription service operates on a fair-share model, with payouts funded by subscription revenues, which enables a self-sustaining service built for the long-term—encouraging publishers to offer a wide selection of books from all genres. Kobo Plus was designed with the booklover in mind, and provides book recommendations tailored to individual readers’ interests.
Subscription sites have reported that romance e-books continue to be the most popular genre. It remains to be seen if Romance titles will eventually be culled in the Netherlands, like they were in the United States. Scribd famously had a huge problem of romance readers devouring books at such a rapid clip they were running out of money and had to cull the entire catalog. This led to Scribd eventually abandoning the unlimited model altogether.
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
