For the past decade, three companies have been building full-fledged ebook ecosystems with devices, apps and digital bookstores all working perfectly together \u2014\u00a0Amazon, Rakuten and a tiny company called Vivlio.<\/p>\n
While Amazon\u2019s Kindle is the clear leader and Rakuten\u2019s Kobo the obvious challenger, Vivlio has been building an open European alternative to these two tech giants. And it proves that you can compete with tech giants with a team of 35 as long as you have a distinct strategy with different goals.<\/p>\n
Vivlio was incorporated in 2011, just a year after Kobo released its first ebook reader. At first, Vivlio was a side project from Decitre<\/a>, a bookstore chain from the Lyon area. Just like Barnes & Noble in the U.S., Decitre wanted to start selling ebooks so that it would address all your reading needs.<\/p>\n But Vivlio chose a different path as it immediately decided that it wanted to build a bookstore-agnostic ebook platform. Cultura<\/a>, one of the biggest booksellers in France, became a shareholder.<\/p>\n \u201cThe idea was to create a European coalition \u2014 well, French at first, but we\u2019re trying to make it European now \u2014 a coalition of companies with similar interests, booksellers and retailers of cultural goods, around a French and then European solution,\u201d Vivlio CEO David Dupr\u00e9 told me.<\/p>\n Bookshops existed long before the inception of Amazon. But Amazon didn\u2019t partner with existing bookstores to deliver books to your home. While Amazon has managed to capture a large market share of book sales, bookshops still exist.<\/p>\n In some countries, including many European countries, fixed book prices<\/a> have even helped independent bookstores remain in business. That\u2019s why the book industry is still a highly fragmented industry in Europe with large e-commerce retailers, big chain bookstores and independent shops.<\/p>\n From the very beginning, Vivlio bet that the book industry would remain fragmented \u2014 building yet-another-Amazon wouldn\u2019t be a winning move. Vivlio signed a handful of partnerships with small and big chain bookstores so that it could run their ebook stores for them.<\/p>\n Image Credits:<\/strong> Romain Dillet<\/p>\n<\/div>\n In France, in addition to Decitre and Cultura, Vivlio has also partnered with Decitre\u2019s sister company Furet du Nord and Leclerc. Vivlio is also working with the leading chain bookstores in Belgium and Spain, Standaard Boekhandel\/Club and Casa del Libro respectively. So if you\u2019ve bought an e-book on one of those websites, Vivlio handled that transaction on behalf of those retailers.<\/p>\n \u201cThe fundamental principle of the Vivlio model, which really sets us apart from Kobo, for example, which has a partnership with Fnac, is that we guarantee two things to our partners. First, the customer remains their customer. This means that the customer account is a bookseller\u2019s customer account, not a Vivlio customer account,\u201d Dupr\u00e9 said.<\/p>\n \u201cSecond, a very large portion of the sales generated by the Vivlio ecosystem go to the bookseller. In other words, we leave most of the margin to the reseller . . . That\u2019s the contractual, legal and operational promise,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n While Vivlio only takes a small cut on each ebook sale, it still represents the majority of the company\u2019s revenue. But selling ebooks is one thing. You have to provide ways to read these ebooks after that.<\/p>\n The French company quickly understood that it needed to sell its own ebook readers so that buyers could download and read their books on a dedicated device. Once again, instead of designing an ebook reader from scratch, Vivlio partnered with an existing manufacturer,\u00a0PocketBook<\/a> \u2014 more on that later.<\/p>\n Selling ebooks has also represented a technical challenge for the company. The dominant file format for ebooks is called epub \u2014 even recent Kindle devices now support<\/a> epub books. So naturally Vivlio is selling epub files.<\/p>\n But book publishers often require a protection method (a DRM) to make sure that ebooks don\u2019t end up on the internet just a few days after the official release. While Amazon, Rakuten, Apple and Google have all designed their own DRM layer, most third-party ebook sellers rely on Adobe\u2019s DRM system.<\/p>\n But Adobe\u2019s DRM hasn\u2019t evolved in years. It\u2019s clunky, hostile to the end user and Adobe takes a cut on each transaction. \u201cThe company literally almost died because of [Adobe\u2019s DRM] as we were having major problems. It accounted for 80% of our customer support requests,\u201d Dupr\u00e9 said.<\/p>\n Vivlio contributed to Readium LCP, an open-source DRM solution that doesn\u2019t require an Adobe account (or any third-party account). Many companies and public institutions have embraced LCP<\/a> in recent years. Adobe\u2019s DRM is still the leading protection system, but this technical move contributes to the open ecosystem philosophy behind Vivlio.<\/p>\n Vivlio partners with PocketBook for its ebook readers. But these devices aren\u2019t just rebranded PocketBook devices as the company adds a software layer so that they work with the entire Vivlio ecosystem. For instance, you can log in to your bookstore account directly on your Vivlio e-reader. All your purchases are automatically synchronized with your device and Vivlio\u2019s cloud storage.<\/p>\n Vivlio currently has three ebook readers in its product lineup. There\u2019s the entry-level Vivlio Light e-reader with a 6-inch display and a color-adjustable frontlight. There\u2019s the improved version of that reader, the Vivlio Light HD. And there\u2019s a bigger e-reader called the Vivlio InkPad 4. This one has a 7.8-inch display.<\/p>\n I have been testing the Vivlio Light HD for the past few weeks, and it\u2019s exactly what you would expect from an e-reader in 2023. With a 300dpi screen, the text is sharp and highly readable. The battery lasts several weeks, even when you use the frontlight. There\u2019s a USB-C port for charging, built-in Wi-Fi connectivity and a ton of customization options for the interface, gestures and typography.<\/p>\n Image Credits:<\/strong> Romain Dillet \/<\/p>\n<\/div>\n It\u2019s also worth noting that there are tiny physical buttons at the bottom of the device \u2014 physical buttons are uncommon with e-readers these day. Overall, it\u2019s a small reading device that you can carry with you everywhere you go.<\/p>\n There are other features, such as a web browser, a calendar and some simple games like solitaire. But in the smartphone era, e-readers are good for one thing \u2014 reading. If you\u2019re an intense reader and don\u2019t want to carry a pile of books with you on your next vacation, this device works extremely well.<\/p>\n Vivlio positions itself as a neutral player in the ebook industry. While Cultura is now the main shareholder, it still has a handful of minority shareholders from the industry. For instance, Divibib<\/a> is a recent addition on Vivlio\u2019s capitalization table.<\/p>\n Divibib isn\u2019t a bookstore, it\u2019s a company that works tightly with public libraries in Germany. As you may have guessed, you can use a Vivlio e-reader to borrow books from German libraries. Once again, that\u2019s because digital lending is another form of ebook reading.<\/p>\n \u201cThe company isn\u2019t going to be integrated into a group. The idea is to create an alliance of European partners. The capital is also structured in this way. It\u2019s not open to everyone, but when we have major partners, there may be discussions to add them as shareholders,\u201d Dupr\u00e9 said.<\/p>\n Vivlio is well aware that it is never going to be as big as Amazon or Rakuten. But the company estimates that it has hundreds of thousands of active users. It\u2019s not a huge number, but there are only 35 people working for the company.<\/p>\n More importantly, there\u2019s a lot of room for growth. As people start looking at ebooks as a way to supplement their reading habits, Vivlio provides several entry points into its ecosystem. It\u2019s an interesting business case that illustrates differentiated positioning.<\/p>\nTurning bookshops into ebook sellers<\/h2>\n
User-friendly ebooks<\/h2>\n
Adding ebook readers to the ecosystem<\/h2>\n
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<\/p>\nA neutral player<\/h2>\n
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