Bookmate expands to Indonesia, partners with Indosat

Social e-reading subscription platform Bookmate has expanded into Indonesia, partnering with telecommunications network Indosat to bring mobile reading to Indonesian customers.

The companies aim to launch a mass market mobile reading service under the brand Bookmate-Cipika Books.

Ahead of the launch, Bookmate has signed deals with “leading” Indonesian publishers to bring 4,000 titles in Bahasa in addition to its library of 250,000 English language titles.

Managing director of Bookmate, Andrew Baev, said the company’s strategy was to focus on “high-growth, under served markets”.

He said: “The global book publishing industry is worth $120 billion, about eight times 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.”

He added: “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.”

Carlos Caro Caro, division head of digital commerce at Indosat, said: “Indonesians are keen consumers of all types of media via their mobile phones and we are excited to be able to offer them an innovative mobile reading solution with our partner Bookmate.”

The 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 e-book market is forecasted to reach $2.2 billion by the end of 2016, the company said, so Bookmate believes Indonesia is an ideal place to introduce its mobile reading service.

Bookmate is a subscription-based social reading service that makes reading accessible to anyone in the world with a mobile phone. They have over 2.5 million active users and over 500,000 titles in eleven languages.

Indosat is the second largest cellular operator in the country with more than 55 million subscribers.