More of the same from Storytel in Q3. Forecasts beat. Subscribers up. Revenues up. The unlimited subscription model continues to prove its worth.

The Storytel quarterly reports are in serious danger of becoming boring, at least in terms of the predictability of the numbers. Roll out the quarterly report template stating forecasts beaten, revenue and subscribers up, and insert the latest numbers.

And the Q3 press release offers no new insights into Jonas Tellander’s global expansion plans, only repeating the past quarters news.

Our acquisitions of the Arabic audiobook service Kitab Sawti, the Israeli audiobook service iCast, the leading Icelandic publisher Forladið and the Nordic audiobook production company Earselect in the recent months, underline the conviction in Storytel’s global expansion.

That will have come as news to Publishing Perspectives readers on October 7, when Porter Anderson announced Tellander would be a keynote speaker at Frankfurt – only the fourth report on Storytel in the past two years.

TNPS covered those items here, here and here.

Storytel buys Arabic audiobook subscription service Kitab Sawti. CEO Sebastian Bond to lead a new regional operation, Storytel MENA
Storytel acquires Hebrew audiobook outfit iCast. To launch in Israel in Q1 2021
Sweden: Storytel’s spending spree continues with 3rd acquisition this month – Nordic audiobook production company Earselect

Briefly on the Q3 detail:

Storytel had an average of 1.36 million paying subscribers in Q3, up 103,300 on Q2 2020. Annual subscriber growth in Q3 was 345,900 over 2019.

Q3 streaming revenues hit SEK 490.2 million ($55.5 million), +23% YOY.

In the competitive Nordic segment 12,000 new subscribers took the total to 902,000. Nordics streaming revenues hit SEK 394.5 million ($44.6 million).

But it’s the non-Nordics that matter for the future

With the Nordics fast approaching the tipping point for digital –

Subscription accounted for 48% of Sweden’s book sales in 2019 as print book sales fell. The tipping point nears

– the Nordics numbers increasingly become a battle for market share, but it’s the non-Nordics that matter for the future, with Storytel currently in 20 countries. To which we can add two more the by end of this year (Thailand and Belgium) and a forecast of 40 markets by 2023, starting with Israel and Indonesia in early 2021.

Belgium joins Thailand for Storytel 2020 launch, lining up France, Portugal, Austria, Luxembourg and Switzerland among many as possible candidates to join Israel and Indonesia in 2021-3
40 markets by 2023. 1.5 million subscribers, $200 million revenue by end 2020. Sweden’s Storytel gets into second gear

Non-Nordics subscribers grew 65% in Q3, to 458,300, while non-Nordics streaming revenues grew 63%, to SEK 95.8 million ($10.8 million).

In related news BookBeat has just announced its Q3 results. Details here.

Sweden’s BookBeat sees 69% revenue boost. On target to reach $57 million by end 2020 with 400,000 subscribers