Introduction
Over the past decade, three companies have built complete systems for e-books with devices, applications, and digital stores that work perfectly together – Amazon, Rakuten, and a small company called Vivlio.
While Amazon’s Kindle is the clear leader and Rakuten’s Kobo is the obvious competitor, Vivlio has built an open European alternative to these tech giants. It proves that you can compete with the tech giants with a team of 35 people as long as you have a distinctive strategy with different goals.
Transforming Bookstores into E-book Retailers
Bookstores existed before Amazon emerged. However, Amazon did not partner with existing bookstores to deliver books to your home. While Amazon managed to capture a large share of the book-selling market, bookstores still exist.
In some countries, including many European countries, fixed book prices have helped independent bookstores stay in business. For this reason, the book industry remains a highly fragmented industry in Europe, consisting of large e-retailers, big chain stores, and independent shops.
From the beginning, Vivlio bet that the book industry would remain fragmented – building another platform like Amazon would not be a successful step. Vivlio signed a few partnerships with both small and large bookstores so it could operate e-book stores on their behalf.
User-friendly E-books
While Vivlio takes only a small portion of each e-book sale, it represents the majority of the company’s revenue. But selling e-books is one thing. You must provide means for reading these books afterward.
The French company quickly understood that it needed to sell its e-reader so buyers could download and read their books on a dedicated device. Again, instead of designing an e-reader from scratch, Vivlio collaborated with an existing manufacturer, PocketBook – we’ll discuss that later.
Selling e-books posed a technical challenge for the company as well. The prevailing file format for e-books is called ePub – even modern Kindle devices now support ePub books. So, it is natural that Vivlio sells ePub files.
However, publishers often require a form of Digital Rights Management (DRM) to ensure that e-books do not end up online a few days after their official release. While Amazon, Rakuten, Apple, and Google have all designed their own DRM layers, most third-party e-book sellers rely on Adobe’s DRM system.
But Adobe’s DRM hasn’t evolved for years. It is inflexible, unfriendly to the end user, and Adobe takes a cut from every sale. “The company almost died because of [Adobe DRM] as we had major issues. It accounted for 80% of our customer support requests,” said Dubreuil.
Adding the E-book Reader to the Ecosystem
Vivlio collaborates with PocketBook for its e-reader. But these devices are not just PocketBook devices with a different brand, as the company adds a software layer so they work with the entire Vivlio ecosystem. For example, you can log into your bookstore account directly on your Vivlio e-reader. All your purchases are automatically synced to your device and stored in Vivlio’s cloud.
Currently, Vivlio has three e-readers in its lineup. There is the basic Vivlio Lite e-reader with a six-inch screen and adjustable front lighting in colors. There is the enhanced version of this reader, the Vivlio Lite HD. And there is a larger e-reader called the Vivlio InkPad 4. This reader has a 7.8-inch screen.
It has been
I have been trying the e-reader Vivlio Lite HD over the past few weeks, and it’s exactly what you would expect from an e-book reader in 2023. With a 300 DPI screen, the text is clear and extremely easy to read. The battery lasts for weeks, even with the front light on. There is a USB-C port for charging, built-in Wi-Fi, and several customization options for the interface, gestures, and fonts.
It’s also worth noting that there are small physical buttons at the bottom of the device – physical buttons are uncommon in e-book readers these days. Overall, it is a small reading device that you can carry with you wherever you go.
Neutral Player
Vivlio positions itself as a neutral player in the e-book industry. While Cultura is now the main contributor, they still have a few minority contributors from the industry. For instance, Divibib is a recent addition to Vivlio’s capital table.
Divibib is not a bookstore; it is a company that works closely with public libraries in Germany. You can also use the Vivlio e-reader to borrow books from German libraries. Again, this is because digital lending is another form of reading e-books.
Vivlio fully recognizes that it will not compete with Amazon or Rakuten in size. However, the company estimates that it has hundreds of thousands of active users. These are not huge numbers, especially considering there are only 35 people working at the company.
Most importantly, there are plenty of opportunities for growth. As people begin to see e-books as a way to complement their reading habits, Vivlio provides several entry points into its ecosystem. It’s an interesting business case that illustrates the differentiation in position.
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