CHENNAI: A lot of people who want to read books complain that they don’t get enough time to do so. The startup, Bookbhook.com caters to exactly those kind. They follow the motto ‘know more without reading’. According to the founder and Chief Editor, Gaurav Gupta, Bookbhook.com is India’s first books based micro-learning service.
They curate non-fiction books and then convert them into short book summaries. The summaries can be read on the app or the website. However, there are more users for the former. Talking about the marketing for such services, Gaurav says, that we live in a world where ‘sharing economy’ rules, with ‘must-have’ services like Uber and Airbnb. What is emerging over the next few years is the ‘Attention Economy’.
In this context, he adds that he believes in following the business model where we need to ‘sacrifice’ our limited attention for content that is more attractive for us. “Most of the millennials spend a lot of time on mobile phones. It has increased from 107 minutes in 2012 to 223 minutes in 2017. More time spent online
means less time for other leisure activities like reading and exercising,” says Gaurav.
He further points that in a knowledge economy it is difficult to manage the friction between ‘I need to know more’ and ‘I do not get the time to read books’.
Gaurav states that India is an advent of cheap data and affordable smart phones. “We estimated an addressable market of more than 40 million knowledge-hungry Indians, who are looking for solutions that help them know more, in just 10-15 minutes everyday,” says Gaurav.
Gaurav and his partner Himanshu Joshi decided to build the business model of Bookbhook.com because of their passion for reading and learning. The app helps you read one book summary every weekday, on your smartphone. One can buy summaries on a pay-per-summary basis, or you can even sign up for a subscription service. “The subscription service is being picked up not only by individual customers but also by corporate learning and development leaders, who see Bookbhook as an effective way to help their employees learn more,” says Gaurav. The app also has free contents available.
The summaries are done by writers. The platform also offers audio versions of the summaries. The future plans of the strtup include introducing vernacular language versions of the high quality handcrafted book summaries. Bookbhook is an early revenue stage bootstrapped startup. The founders have put in more than $25,000 into building the service delivery and high quality content library platforms. When asked about maintaining the essence of reading a book, Gaurav says, “With over 60,000 app downloads, Bookhook is loved by both heavy readers as well as ‘reluctant’ readers. For heavy readers, who primarily read fiction, Bookbhook becomes a discovery tool to explore non-fiction books. A substantial number of readers of summaries on the Bookbhook app end up buying the original book using the links in the app.” For the reluctant readers, Bookbhook promises to inculcate the ‘reading habit’ by spending just 10-15 minutes on one new book summary every day.
He says, “With over 60,000 app downloads, Bookhook is loved by both heavy readers as well as ‘reluctant’ readers. For heavy readers, who primarily read fiction, Bookbhook becomes a discovery tool to explore non-fiction books. A substantial number of readers of summaries on the Bookbhook app end up buying the original book using the links in the app.” For the reluctant readers, Bookbhook summaries act as a way of building the ‘reading habit’ by spending just 10-15 minutes on one new book summary.
In a Nutshell
Bookbkhook.com, founded by Gaurav Gupta, curates non-fiction books into short format summaries
It functions on a subscription basis and caters to both avid readers and reluctant readers decreasing the attention time
The founders invested over $25,000 into building the service delivery and the library platform
They currently have over 60,000 app downloads with introductory subscriptions ranging from `333 to ` 555