Australia has proven itself a major growth market for Scribd. Subscriptions have more than tripled in the country in less than a year. This has prompted Scribd to negotiate with their publishing partners to bring modern bestsellers to Australia in a bid to appeal to serious readers.
Scribd is employing a different kind of strategy to the Australian market. First of all they have finally managed to convince publishers, such as Simon & Schuster, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and Harlequin to give them over 200 modern bestsellers.
Additionally, Scribd is trying to convince local publishers that their subscription e-book platform is viable. This is an easy sell, because Scribd are the only ones who have any sort of international traction. Oyster and Enittle are US only and Kindle Unlimited is only in a few European markets.
One of the drawbacks of e-book subscription sites is that they only have titles that have been out for a number of years and serious readers have already consumed them. Now that Scribd is adding recent books, it could be a major selling point to Australian residents.
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.
