O’Reilly Media, which originally developed Safari Books Online, is now the sole owner of the company, after purchasing Pearson’s 50% stake in the former joint venture. Safari will not have to consult an equity stake partner anymore and will be able to fast track any type of development they want to pursue.
Safari, launched 13 years ago with 600 titles, is an online content platform success story. Today, the company’s more than 1,000,000 active users can choose from over 25,000 books and 10,000 hours of video training from 200 publishers and other content providers. While Safari initially focused on technology content, it now covers business and design topics, as well.
How is Safari different from other online bookstores? They have been pioneering the online subscription model for a very long time. They also have videos, short form content, and evolving manuscripts from O’Reilly Media and other publishers including Addison-Wesley, Prentice Hall, Peachpit, John Wiley & Sons, Microsoft Press, Adobe Press, Cisco Press, Manning Publications, Packt, SAS Publishing, IBM Press, FT Press and Focal Press. You could say that Safari is known for having a high degree of geek cred, but certainly won’t appeal to your average Hunger Games reader.
Many people use Safari because they have a ton of obscure content that is not available anymore else. If you are unable to find any results on Google, try Safari, they normally have it.
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.