“PaperC could be a real game changer”TechCrunch Europe

“German Startup of The Year 2009”

Innovation Award from the German Publishers and Booksellers Association 

Case Study of a Freemium Business Model for Academic and Specialist eBooks

Between Open Access and Commerce

Table of Content

• Origin of PaperC• What we did wrong• What we did right• PaperC Today• Future Plans

© 2011 PaperC GmbH 2

Original Business Model

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FREEReading online from A to Z

€ 0.10 PER PAGE

• Download + print

• Copying text with citations

• Highlighting text

• Working with and sharing of notes

What we didwrong

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1.5% Paying Users

• Unlimited and unrestricted reading has not yieldedsustainable results

• conversion to paying users stuck at 1.5%

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Low sales of notes as a premiumfunction• Sales of notes as premium feature for € 0.10/page have

been ineffective• Downloading is (still) the most used feature• Copy &Paste is second most used

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Flash is Dead

• At least for online document reading• Users demand iPhone/iPad/Android compatibility• None of our users demands Kindle, Sony Reader

compatibility

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What we didright

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PDF is better than its reputation

• Easiest way to get content from publishers• ePub is not best format for graphic heavy books

(textbooks and specialist books)• PDF downloads works well on tablets and PC

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Soft DRM is good

• Publishers accept it• Users like it• No illegal file-sharing detected thus far

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The user’s email and the PaperCwatermark is on every pageThe user’s email and the PaperCwatermark is on every page

Statistics count

• No. of downloads• Average number of pages downloaded• Time on book• Visits and unique visitors• No. Of notes, citations and bookmarks

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PaperCBusiness Model Today

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FREE•Unrestricted access to all content for a limited time

PREMIUM • € 0.10/page

Users can buy individual pages for unlimited online reading and downloading.

• Buy eBookfor unlimited reading time and PDF download

• Buy printed bookfrom affiliate shops or print on demand service 

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Number of Publishing Partners

German (60) International (10)

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Number of Titles Under Contract

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Number of Registered Users

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Paying Users/Registered

Future Plans

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• Further development of social features• Connect to Social Networks (e.g. Facebook, Twitter)• Develop HTML5 web reader• Build up the B2C plattform for all kinds of specialist and

academic Content• Reach our goal of becoming the platform for expert

generated content

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Contact us

© 2011 PaperC GmbH 21

Martin:Martin.froehlich@paperc.de

Felix: Felix.hofmann@paperc.de