The audiobook market showed growth for the first time since the outbreak of hostilities in Ukraine

For the first time since the outbreak of hostilities, the audiobook market in Russia showed growth: in the second quarter it increased by 33%, exceeding 920 million rubles. The main incentive was the active consumption of content within subscription services, according to the players. Analysts add that the trend was also influenced by the active promotion of relatively new services – Bookmate and Strok, as well as the general expansion of the range of audiobooks.

Sergey Anuryev, CEO of Litres Group of Companies (which develops Litres and MyBook), told Kommersant that the audiobook market grew by 33% in the second quarter, exceeding 920 million rubles. The segment showed positive dynamics for the first time since the first quarter of 2022. The top manager added that sales of works by digital authors in audio format account for about 11% of the audio market: “One of the key reasons is the active growth in the consumption of book audio content in subscription services.” Thus, the share of the audio segment in the subscription, according to Anuryev, grew in the second quarter by more than a third, to 44%.

The Litres group itself showed an increase in revenue from the audio direction by 56%, in the subscription – by 124%. The segment includes the group’s own services, as well as partner projects with mobile operators.

In 2022, according to the group, the audiobook market fell by 3-5% compared to 2021, to 3.3 billion rubles. Revenue growth of Litres Group at the beginning of 2022 slowed down and amounted to 15% against 27% in 2021 (see Kommersant dated July 7, 2022). In the first quarter of 2023, audiobook sales began to recover: the group’s revenue from this direction in Pay Per Download (payment for downloading a file), excluding Subscription, grew by almost 9% year-on-year (see Kommersant dated May 17).

After the outbreak of hostilities in Ukraine, one of the major market participants, the audio and e-book service Storytel, announced the termination of business in Russia, but allowed local users who already had a subscription to renew it for a while. From October 1, 2022, the application stopped working in the Russian Federation.

The reason for the current growth is “quite simple,” believes the former head of the Association of Internet Publishers Vladimir Kharitonov: “The Bookmate (Yandex) and Strok (MTS) services that appeared last year began to actively develop the market.” Thus, the platforms began to expand their range and offer, actively engage in promotion, the expert explains. Lines declined to comment. In “Bookmate” did not answer “Kommersant”.

The growth of the market was also affected by the “coverage of the new range,” adds Sergey Anuryev: “In Litres, the number of audiobooks released last quarter increased by 61% compared to the second quarter of 2022.” In addition, the growth in the number of sounded books by samizdat authors also affects, he notes. Thus, over the year, the audio samizdat segment almost doubled, the top manager noted.

An interlocutor of Kommersant on the market claims that the expansion of the range is helped by the dubbing of books with the help of artificial intelligence: Litres, Stroky and Bookmate have been actively introducing this technology since last year (see Kommersant dated January 23).

The market was unstable all last year, purchasing power fell noticeably, which first of all led to a drop in demand for non-essential goods, Denis Petrov, Alpina Digital Deputy General Director, recalled: “Now publishers have been able to adapt the release process to new conditions, which has led to an increase in the range “. He confirmed that in the first quarter, the company “almost managed” to achieve the same period in 2021 in sales of audiobooks, but in the second quarter “growth slowed down slightly.”

Alpina Digital explains the situation with seasonality: the first and fourth quarters are traditionally more active in terms of sales, says Denis Petrov. “If we compare the performance of the summer of 2023 with the same period of 2021, our sales of audiobooks in rubles increased by 11%,” he said. By the end of the year, the company expects overall audiobook sales growth of 15-20% from summer values: “This is possible if the growth rate is maintained and if there are no major shocks in the market.”

Julia Yurasova