Posted Sep 14, 2022 8:00 AM
In business either, good recipes are not always found the first time. After a little trial and error, the French YouScribe seems to have found the right mixture. This digital library – very focused on ebooks but also offering audiobooks or press titles – has indeed just crossed the symbolic barrier of one million paying subscribers. Twenty times more than three years ago. Created in 2011 by Juan Pirlot de Corbion – passed through the publishing house Actes Sud and founder of the online bookstore Chapitre.com sold to Bertelsmann at the end of the 2000s – the firm has not always shown such growth.
“With YouScribe, we had a few difficult first years. With our initial unit sales model, discussions with publishers were complicated,” recalls the manager. The reason ? Major publishing houses fear that the digital book, and therefore YouScribe does not cannibalize the physical format and many refuse to make “deals” with the group, which is struggling to expand its catalog.
In the mid-2010s, the platform switched to a model of unlimited access to a library for a subscription of 10 euros per month, inspired by the Spotify model and Netflix. Then, the group donates 60% of the income it generates, the distribution between publishers being made in proportion to the pages read. Above all, YouScribe quickly decided to focus on French-speaking African countries.
Close to financial balance
A turning point for the group which has forged partnerships with Orange including the digital library in some of its offers in countries such as Côte d’Ivoire and Senegal. Present in some twenty countries, YouScribe has entered into the same type of agreement with local telecom operators, such as Maroc Telecom, but also with Canal+. The group offers different prices there, with offers at 15 cents per day or 80 cents per week.
We play the role of broadcaster-distributor in territories where delivery costs are very high for French publishers and where they struggle to reach readers.
Juan Pirlot de Corbion Founder of YouScribe
A success. The group will generate a record turnover of more than 8 million euros in 2022 and is approaching financial equilibrium. Since its strategic change of course, relations have been calmer with publishers who certainly still do not consent to new literary works being quickly present on the platform, but now perceive YouScribe as a growth relay in French-speaking African countries where having mainly “back catalog” (old titles) does not seem to be a hindrance.
Partnerships with more than 1,900 publishers worldwide
“We play the role of broadcaster-distributor in territories where delivery costs are very high for French publishers and where they struggle to reach readers”, argues Juan Pirlot de Corbion who also relies on publishers and local novelists to expand its content portfolio, as well as on educational content put online by third parties. “It’s our YouTube side and what sets us apart in the industry,” he notes.
Today, YouScribe has partnerships with more than 1,900 publishers worldwide, including Editis or Gallimard in France and Anglo-Saxon giants like Penguin Random House, or Macmillan. “We launched our offer in English in South Africa where we have 12,000 subscribers and we will continue to expand it to English-speaking African countries such as Nigeria or Ghana, specifies Juan Pirlot de Corbion. We also want to deploy the French version, eventually, in Quebec and the Middle East. »
