This Presentation was provided by Thad McIlroy, independent analyst and author, during the NISO webinar entitled Understanding the Marketplace - Consolidation, the Long Term Impact, and the New Players, held on March 8, 2017
6. Project Background
Started collecting data in 2012
Sourced from diverse online sources
2014: 600 names published
Assembled financial data
Created classifications
Maintaining a U.S. focus
Report published mid-January, 2017
7. Book Publishing Startups
Trade publishing-focused
Most startups target self-published
authors, not publishers
Library-industry startups are included
Is Project Gutenberg a competitor to
libraries?
8. What is a Startup?
A new business of any sort
Existential notion of a “startup” versus a
new business (“startupedness”?)
Tend to see themselves as a new type of
business
Web-enabled
61 new bookstores in 2015 are not
included
9. Educational Publishing
Rather than “ebooks for education”
moving beyond the book container
Content owners control educational
publishing
18 companies target textbook
rental/resale/price searches
10. Scholarly Publishing
Most are providing new tools and
services that go beyond book publishing
Very few companies on the list have a
scholarly publishing focus
The big players are gobbling up the
innovators
11. What Data is Included?
Trade name (not the corporate name)
(Very) brief mission statement
Type of product or service provided
Funding
Operating status (still in business?)
16. Summary Data
Total funds raised by all startups
Average per funded company
Median per funded company
% of startups with declared funding
% of startups no longer in business
% of Exits/Acquisitions/Mergers
Number of IPOs
17. Summary Data
Total funds raised $944.08
Funds raised at </=$10M $218.49
Average per funded company $6.94
Average per funded </=$10M $2.02
Median per funded company $1.84
Median per funded </=$10M $0.99
% of startups with declared funding 15.0%
% of startups no longer in business 30.4%
% of Exits/Acquisitions/Mergers 6.1%
Number of IPOs 2
18. Investment Profile
$950 million total
The companies are mostly bootstrapped
Only 15% with a declared investment
75% of the funds went to a handful of
companies (Wattpad @ $67m)
Often there is no startup, per se; just a
website and some good intentions
19. The Publishing Industry
Flat, i.e., slow, inactive, sluggish, slack,
quiet, depressed
The quantitative shift to self-publishing is
only now being understood (see
AuthorEarnings.com)
The ebook shift is complex
20. Some Library-Related Startups
Biblioboard Community engagement tools for libraries
Bibliotheca The global leader of self-service solutions for
libraries
Ebrary Online digital library of scholarly ebooks
Hoopla Instantly borrow free ebooks with your library
card
Library for All A digital library platform for developing
countries
Odilo Digital content lending for libraries
21. “Room for innovation”
is quite different from
“ripe for disruption”
Startups think incumbent companies are using
broken models because they’re idiots —
Some problems are just not easily solved
24. Futures
The pace of new startups has slowed,
decidedly so
Very few acquisitions
The ebook sales peak changed the
perception of innovation
Amazon’s relentless domination
The most interesting technology is AI:
machine learning, text mining, natural
language processing (NLP) et al.