If this worrying imbalance between rising revenues and falling profits is also a feature at Audible US then we can safely assume Amazon will be looking very closely at its options.
While financial statistics are usually hard to come by for anything Amazon, Audible UK is an exception, with the company obliged to report its finances annually to Companies House.
ThisIsMoney, a UK financial website, had taken a look at the accounts, and reports Audible UK turned over £226 million ($286 million) in 2022, up 6% on 2021, juxtaposed against a profits fall of nearly 30%, from £19.4 million to £14.8 million ($18.9 million).
The fall in profits is unlikely to trigger any drastic action from Amazon, such as we have seen with other book-sector operations like The Book Depository –
– and Audible UK will anyway be cushioned by Audible US thanks to the easy interchange of English-language titles.
What cannot be determined from these figures is why the Audible UK profits have fallen so dramatically even as revenues rise amid “record sales”. Strategic investment in new titles and author brands, increased production costs, increased marketing expenses, and increased competition will all likely be factors.
But if this worrying imbalance between rising revenues and falling profits is also a feature at Audible US then we can safely assume Amazon will be looking very closely at its options.
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