balinews
[I]Bookmate, the leading social ebook reading service today announced its partnership with Indosat, one of Indonesia’s largest telecommunication networks and service providers to launch a mass market mobile reading service under the Bookmate-Cipika Books brand. The union expands Bookmate’s services to reading fans in the Indonesian market.
Ahead of the launch, Bookmate has signed deals with the leading Indonesian publishers to bring 4,000 titles in Bahasa in addition to its library of 250,000 English language titles.
This expansion comes after Bookmate’s first launch in the Asia Pacific market last year with StarHub, Singapore’s fully-integrated info-communications provider.
The Asian ebook market is forecasted to reach $2.2 billion by the end of 2016 and with high levels of smartphone penetration this provides an ideal basis for Bookmate to introduce its mobile reading service.
Andrew Baev, Managing Director of Bookmate, commented: “The global book publishing industry is worth $120 Billion, about 8x the size of the music industry, and we are seeing an accelerating transition to digital and mobile. Our strategy is to focus on high growth, under-served markets where readers are jumping the gap directly from paper to mobile reading. Indonesia is right in our sweet spot for offering our mix of fun, social and on-the-go reading.”
“We are excited to announce our partnerships with Indosat which will bring mobile reading to a large number of mobile users via a hard-bundled offering. Smartphone penetration and mobile services growth are booming in Indonesia and we see this as a huge opportunity to build the market leader in mobile reading together with Indosat, Indonesia’s most progressive mobile operator.”[/I]
