YouScribe 1A

Equity
YouScribe hopes to become the Netflix of books. The biggest digital library in Europe now offers a subscription with unlimited use.
€2,308,402
total amount raised in round
  • Backed by over 60 investors
This campaign has been closed

Description


YouScribe is a free area which enables everyone to publish and be read, to discuss and to forge links around what they have read. Our objective is to welcome all written works, to make a more diverse offer of publications available and offer everyone broader access to knowledge and to the pleasure of reading. Today, the website counts around 2 million documents and more than 260 000 members.
YouScribe is simply the biggest digital library in Europe. The platform offers its users unlimited access to its catalogue with streaming (reading on line) for just €9.90 per month. There is no binding commitment and no advertising. The books can be read on your computer via the website, on a tablet computer or smartphone using the iOS or Android apps for mobile.
Tailored to real consumer habits today, YouScribe has innovated to provide a model which, like Spotify or Netflix, offers a broad choice of books available for reading on line. The design of a recommendations motor proprietary to YouScribe ensures a personalised service by making available content specific to each user thanks to semantic approximations between the reading matter sought and the contents of the site.
YouScribe also prioritises self-publishing and allows users to publish their own writings which they choose to share, whether free of charge or for a fee; and it provides the tools necessary to disseminate and promote all their publications. Automatic conversion from PDF format to HTML, as well as referencing guarantee optimal visibility of the contents on search engines.
In addition, the YouScribe e-book reader can use the ‘embed’ function, which allows it to export the text and integrate directly on other websites, so as to enhance further the visibility of the writings. Thousands of websites, blogs and social networks use the YouScribe e-book reader daily in the same way they use the video player of YouTube. The dissemination of the YouScribe e-book reader on the web represents that many points feeding the subscription model of unlimited access
Code HTML5 pour une lecture sociale optimale. Cette technologie propriétaire offre la possibilité de lire l’ensemble des documents sur tous les terminaux et navigateurs ainsi que sur les mobiles et tablettes. De plus, le code HTML5 permet une plus grande vitesse de chargement, un rendu fidèle des documents d’origine, et la possibilité de copier/coller ou encore d’effectuer des recherches dans le corps du texte.
La liseuse la plus simple et la plus fluide du marché. Grâce à son ergonomie, elle offre un confort de lecture et permet en quelques clics d’agrandir, de télécharger, d’imprimer, de lire en double page ou de partager sur les réseaux sociaux tous les documents.
La fonction « embedding » optimise le partage en permettant d’importer directement le texte sur une page d’un site Internet ou d’un blog. Efficace et pratique pour illustrer un propos comme un article par exemple.
Une multitude de formats pris en compte : logiciels de la gamme office (Word, Excel, PPT) PDF, Epub, RTF… qui assure à tous la possibilité de publier du contenu et de le consulter.

Problem


Market trends show that more and more reading uses are going digital just as music and video have. This is naturally quite evident in the Anglo-Saxon countries where the digital share is growing very strongly (nearly 30% market share in the US). The rate of growth depends on the tablet type equipment (iPad, smartphones and Kindle, in particular), on the rate of penetration of the internet, and on the behaviour of the content producers. In Europe, the growth curve is favourable despite the obvious delay compared to other countries where it is clearly more advanced (United States, England, South Korea, …). But the movement has begun in Europe, especially in Spain (4% market share).Most of the specialised studies speak of a market share of 5-7% in 2017.
The growth of digital has also given rise to mass illegal downloading which has become common currency in many connected households. Consumers appear to refuse to pay for cultural products which they consider too expensive and prefer to download illegally. The manufacturers in this sector in France in particular have not yet found a legal, smooth, attractive and fairly priced solution to counter the abuses.
Considering these trends, local actors like YouScribe will be able to capture significant shares of revenue if they offer products and services that are innovative and legal, present smooth access to vast catalogues while the traditional producers do not manage individually or among themselves to organise the digital universe.
Offering to consumers useful services and being careful to have rapid (instantaneous) access to useful information or leisure content at a cheap price presupposes the deployment of a sophisticated and solid technical architecture based on the cloud and good mobile applications. The subscriber should be able to read comfortably everywhere and on whatever reading support is chosen.

Idea


YouScribe is working in collaboration with numerous publishers and distributors both in France and internationally.
The platform offers thousands of e-books in an on line bookstore and subscriptions to read on all supports without limitation.
Thus, uses have the choice of registering for the monthly subscription which allows them to access thousands of e-books without limit or to purchase books as you would from a classic online bookstore.