Bookboon

Bookboon is an online publishing company of eBooks. It is focused on publishing student literature for engineering, IT and business students as well as short and practical business books. Bookboon was founded in Denmark in 1988 under the name Ventus,[1] and is based in Copenhagen, Denmark and London, United Kingdom.

Bookboon
Type of businessOnline, private company
Type of site
eBook publishing service
Available inMultilingual
Founded1988 (as Ventus Publishing)
HeadquartersLondon, N1
United Kingdom
No. of locations11 international locations
Area servedWorldwide
Key people
  • Kristian Buus Madsen
  • (CEO)
  • Thomas Buus Madsen
  • (COO)
IndustryeBook Publishing
ProductsFree eBooks
ServiceseBook Downloads, Advertising
URLwww.bookboon.com
AdvertisingYes
RegistrationNot required
Launched2005
Current statusActive

Bookboon's over 900 academic textbooks freely available to students on their website are written by academics and are financed by employer branding ads which are placed in the books and which allows them to be downloaded for free.[2]

The subjects covered by Bookboon's student textbooks[3] include economics, engineering, IT and the natural sciences, while its professional eBooks focus on topics including personal development, marketing, management, accounting and computer software skills. Aside from Bookboon Premium, 2014 was also the year Bookboon launched its Corporate eLibrary,[4] an internal learning solution for companies.

History and background

The company started as a family business called Ventus in 1988 in Denmark. At that time, Ventus focused on publishing student textbooks written by an in-house staff and freelancers. The owners of Ventus had two sons named Thomas Buus Madsen[5] and Kristian Buus Madsen. In 2005, the two brothers launched Bookboon. Soon after, while the brothers were working on the launch of Metro,[6] a free Swedish newspaper, they developed an innovative business model: free digital books financed by a few in-book ads, with a limit of 15% advertising space per book. The advertisers were to be companies looking to promote their career opportunities towards students and professionals.

Initially, Bookboon focused on free academic textbooks and business eBooks for the Danish market. In 2006, the company expanded to Sweden, followed by Germany and the Netherlands in 2007. In 2008, Bookboon expanded to the United Kingdom and started publishing eBooks in English.[7]

Bookboon in the media

In 2011, Bookboon was featured in BBC News' Webscape segment technology show Click presented by Kate Russell,[4]

In 2012, The Guardian's Higher Education Network published an article entitled "Academic publishing: The essential checklist for ebook authors", mentioning Bookboon.[8] Bookboon was also featured in an article by the German newspaper Die Zeit.[9]

In 2015, Bookboon was featured in newspapers such as the German Handelsblatt and one of its Swedish books was mentioned in the Swedish Metro.[10]

In 2016, Bookboon expanded its market to African countries, especially in terms of employer branding. This was reported by the Danish newspaper business.dk, the German channel Deutsche Welle[11] as well as CNBC South Africa.[12]

References
  1. "Ventus internetbutik". ventus.dk. Retrieved 2016-09-06.
  2. Karschnick, Ruben (2012-06-08). "Geschäftsmodell: Die Firma, die Studenten Bücher schenkt". Die Zeit. ISSN 0044-2070. Retrieved 2016-09-06.
  3. "BookBoon Offers Free Technical, Guide, & Textbooks". www.adweek.com. Retrieved 2016-09-06.
  4. "BookboonGlobal – Business Solutions". bookboonglobal.com. Retrieved 2016-09-06.
  5. "Danske e-bogsbrødre hitter i Afrika med gratis studiebøger". Retrieved 2016-09-06.
  6. "Metro – Nyheter du kommer att snacka om – Metro". www.metro.se. Retrieved 2016-09-06.
  7. B E R U F E B I L D E R (2011-10-11), BBC Webscape: Bookboon E-Book-Publisher, retrieved 2016-09-06
  8. Tergeist, Sophie (2012-06-14). "Academic publishing: The essential checklist for ebook authors". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2016-09-06.
  9. Karschnick, Ruben (2012-06-08). "Geschäftsmodell: Die Firma, die Studenten Bücher schenkt". Die Zeit. ISSN 0044-2070. Retrieved 2016-09-06.
  10. "Metro – Nyheter du kommer att snacka om – Metro". www.metro.se. Retrieved 2016-09-06.
  11. Bookboon.com (2016-08-05), Interview between Kristian Buus Madsen and Deutsche Welle TV, retrieved 2016-09-06
  12. Bookboon.com (2016-05-10), Bookboon+network | CNBC Africa interview, retrieved 2016-09-06
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