Bookmate launches new subscription reading app

Bookmate, the Russian subscription-social e-reading service, has released a new app tailored for reading  books on smartphones and tablets.

The app’s features include a social feed, which allows users to follow their friends, favourite authors and celebrities who are also on Bookmate, and share their favourite books and passages. Users can also use the app to share books via Facebook, Twitter and Russian social network VKontakte. The new app is available on both Android and iOS.

Simon Dunlop, c.e.o. of Bookmate, said: “The new interface makes reading e-books more fun, more intuitive and establishes a new standard in reading comfort. Android and Apple device owners can see for themselves by downloading the new Bookmate app.”

Recommendations based on bestselling titles and popular books among the Bookmate community will enhance discoverability of the titles, the company said.

The service currently offers more than half a million titles to 1.5 million active readers using the service. Last month, The Bookseller reported that the subscription service would be signing up titles from English language publishers at Frankfurt Book Fair.