Kobo and the Journey to Kobo Plus: Expansion in Spanish-Language Markets

Rakuten Kobo ("Kobo"), a Canadian-based digital reading ecosystem established in 2009, has become a prominent player in the global ebook and audiobook market. Offering a comprehensive range of black & white and color eReaders, intuitive apps, and a vast catalog spanning dozens of languages, Kobo serves millions of readers worldwide.

At Kobo, our core mission is to enhance the reading experience and understand reader behavior, prioritizing the needs of those who place books at the center of their lives. In addition, we actively engage print book retailers in the digital content landscape.

Driven by a commitment to innovation and catering to evolving reader preferences, Kobo recognized a shift in media consumption patterns around 2015. A new generation of users increasingly favored subscription models, gaining unlimited access to extensive catalogs of music, movies, and television series.
This trend signaled a potential opportunity for books and audiobooks.

Initially, Kobo shared similar concerns with publishers regarding subscription models: Would subscriptions cannibalize a la carte sales? Would they attract new readers or simply shift existing customers?
Would reading and discovery habits change?
And, ultimately, would these models benefit Kobo, publishers, and authors alike?

In 2017, Kobo Plus, our subscription service, launched in the Netherlands and Belgium, built upon a payment model designed to be equitable for publishers, authors, and Kobo. Key findings emerged: a la carte sales were not cannibalized; instead, ebooks generated an incremental revenue stream.
New customers were acquired, many likely drawn away from piracy, as a significant percentage had never previously purchased an ebook from Kobo. Furthermore, Kobo Plus subscribers exhibited distinct reading and discovery behaviors.

As Kobo Plus expanded to include audiobooks and launched in markets such as Canada, the USA, France, Italy, and Portugal, data revealed that Kobo Plus subscribers try reading 6.2 times more books than those purchasing individually.

They demonstrate a greater willingness to explore less well-known authors, debut authors, backlist titles, and diverse genres. Notably, 46% of Kobo Plus subscribers were new ebook purchasers on the Kobo platform, and, as surfaced through our internal surveys, indicating they were not new to digital reading but rather to paying for it.

These avid readers, who previously felt constrained by the cost of individual purchases, now read twice as much and finish six times as many books, completing each book in an average of 10 days.

We are now confident that a la carte sales and Kobo Plus subscriptions coexist effectively within the same market. Kobo Plus facilitates publishers' access to new readers and transforms book discovery.
Subscription serves as a complementary price point, akin to the transition from hardcover to paperback, attracting a distinct customer segment. Kobo remains committed to a la carte sales and its sales growth recognizing that many customers are willing to pay a premium for immediate access to new releases. Subscription provides a valuable third price point for titles that have largely exhausted their initial sales potential – backlist, deep backlist, and titles nearing rights reversion.

Leveraging these insights, Kobo Plus launched in Spain in July 2024, offering ebook, audiobook, and combined ebook & audiobook subscriptions. Spanish-language publishers curated selections encompassing first books in bestselling series, titles that had struggled to find their audience, titles with minimal digital sales, and deep backlist titles with negligible risk of cannibalization. Early results have been promising, particularly for self-published authors and small to mid-sized publishers, as some larger publishers remain hesitant to embrace subscription.

Publishers have observed that certain titles within Kobo Plus generate a disproportionately high share of total payments compared to those outside the program. This success spans genres from literary fiction to crime, romance, non-fiction, children's books, and YA, encompassing both individual titles and major series.

Inclusion in Kobo Plus also enhances a title's visibility within the Kobo algorithm, leading to increased recommendations, email placements, ratings, and reviews.

We are also witnessing publishers adopting strategic approaches to Kobo Plus.
For example, a mid-sized Spanish publisher, anticipating a weaker new release publishing plan in 2024 compared to 2023, proactively included bestselling series, titles, and authors in their Kobo Plus catalog, in addition to promoting new releases and participating in Kobo price promotions

As a result, despite the year-over-year decline in new releases sales, the publisher achieved overall year-over-year growth through a combination of price promotions and Kobo Plus sales.

The Kobo Plus journey in Spanish-language markets continues in 2025 with expansion into Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Peru, marking a new chapter of reader engagement and book discovery.