Blinkist is a German book summary subscription service founded by Holger Seim, Niklas Jansen, Sebastian Klein, and Tobias Balling in 2012. The co-founders were inspired to create the platform to help full-time workers better utilize their free time.
Blinkist operates under a freemium businessmodel, with users able to access one book summary per day. For paid users who want access to the full library, there are various individual and enterprise-level subscription plans available.
Blinkist also collects an affiliate commission when a consumer purchases the full version of a book on Amazon.
Business Model Element
Analysis
Implications
Examples
Value Proposition
Blinkist’s value proposition includes: – Book Summaries: Providing concise summaries of non-fiction books, allowing users to access key insights quickly. – Time Efficiency: Offering a time-saving solution for busy individuals to consume knowledge. – Diverse Library: Curating a wide range of book genres and topics. – Offline Access: Enabling users to read summaries offline with a premium subscription. Blinkist appeals to readers who want to learn efficiently and access a variety of book insights without committing to full book reading.
Attracts users seeking time-efficient knowledge consumption. Serves a diverse audience with a wide selection of book summaries. Offers offline access for premium subscribers. Provides a unique value proposition in the knowledge and self-improvement space. Delivers a comprehensive solution for avid readers.
– Concise summaries of non-fiction books. – Time-saving solution for busy individuals. – A diverse library of book genres and topics. – Offline access with a premium subscription.
Customer Segments
Blinkist serves the following customer segments: 1. Busy Professionals: Individuals with limited time for reading but a desire to acquire knowledge. 2. Lifelong Learners: Readers who enjoy exploring various topics and self-improvement. 3. Students: Students looking for concise book insights for academic purposes. 4. Book Enthusiasts: Those who want to explore books before committing to full reads. Blinkist caters to a broad range of users, from professionals to students and avid readers.
Attracts busy professionals seeking efficient knowledge consumption. Engages lifelong learners who enjoy exploring diverse topics. Serves students looking for academic resources. Appeals to book enthusiasts interested in exploring books quickly. Diversifies customer segments for a broader market reach.
– Busy professionals with limited reading time. – Lifelong learners interested in self-improvement. – Students seeking academic resources. – Book enthusiasts exploring books efficiently.
Distribution Strategy
Blinkist’s distribution strategy includes: – Mobile App: Offering a mobile application for on-the-go access. – Website: Providing a web-based platform for desktop users. – Marketing: Utilizing digital marketing channels and partnerships for user acquisition. – Freemium Model: Offering both free and premium subscription plans. Blinkist ensures accessibility through its mobile app, website, digital marketing, and a freemium model that allows users to experience the platform before subscribing.
Provides convenience through a mobile app and website. Engages users through digital marketing efforts and partnerships. Offers a freemium model to lower the barrier to entry. Ensures multi-channel distribution for accessibility and user acquisition.
– A mobile application for on-the-go access. – A web-based platform for desktop users. – Utilizing digital marketing channels and partnerships. – Offering both free and premium subscription plans.
Revenue Streams
Blinkist generates revenue primarily through two streams: 1. Premium Subscriptions: Earnings from users who subscribe to the premium plan, granting access to the full library of book summaries and offline access. 2. Partner Collaborations: Earning income through partnerships with publishers and authors for featured book summaries and promotions. Blinkist’s primary revenue sources are premium subscriptions and collaborations with publishing partners.
Earns revenue from premium subscriptions for full access and offline reading. Generates income through collaborations with publishers and authors for book promotions. Diversifies revenue streams through subscription fees and partnerships. Seeks financial sustainability through these income sources.
– Earnings from premium subscriptions for full access. – Income from collaborations with publishers and authors.
Marketing Strategy
Blinkist’s marketing strategy involves: – Digital Advertising: Running digital advertising campaigns to attract users. – Content Marketing: Providing blog articles and educational content related to books and personal development. – Referral Program: Encouraging users to refer friends in exchange for benefits. – Partnerships: Collaborating with publishers and authors for featured book promotions. Blinkist focuses on digital advertising, content marketing, referrals, and partnerships to grow its user base and engage readers.
Runs digital advertising campaigns for visibility and user acquisition. Provides educational content to showcase the value of book summaries. Encourages user referrals to expand the user base organically. Collaborates with partners for book promotions and marketing efforts. Implements a well-rounded marketing strategy for brand growth.
– Digital advertising campaigns for user acquisition. – Educational content related to books and personal development. – Referral incentives for users who refer friends. – Collaborations with publishers and authors for book promotions.
Organization Structure
Blinkist’s organizational structure includes: – Executive Leadership: Responsible for strategic direction and decision-making. – Content Creation: Teams responsible for summarizing and creating book summaries. – Technology and Development: Overseeing platform development and innovation. – Marketing and Partnerships: Engaging users and collaborating with publishers and authors. Blinkist maintains a structure aligned with core functions for efficient platform operation.
Led by executive leadership for strategic direction and growth. Employs teams dedicated to content creation and book summaries. Focuses on technology and development for platform enhancement. Engages users through marketing and collaborates with publishing partners. Maintains an organized structure for efficient operation and content creation.
– Led by executive leadership for strategic direction and growth. – Teams responsible for summarizing and creating book summaries. – Focus on technology and platform development. – Engagement with users and partnerships with publishers. – Organized structure for efficient operation.
Competitive Advantage
Blinkist’s competitive advantage stems from: – Time Efficiency: Offering a time-saving solution for knowledge consumption. – Diverse Library: Providing a wide range of book genres and topics. – Accessibility: Allowing offline access for premium subscribers. – Marketing Collaborations: Partnering with publishers and authors for featured book promotions. – Freemium Model: Offering free access with an option to upgrade. Blinkist’s strengths in efficiency, diversity, accessibility, partnerships, and its freemium model make it a competitive player in the knowledge and self-improvement space.
Distinguishes itself with a time-efficient knowledge consumption solution. Appeals to a diverse audience with a wide range of book summaries. Enhances accessibility with offline access for premium subscribers. Collaborates with publishers and authors for marketing efforts. Provides a freemium model to cater to both free and paying users. Enjoys a competitive edge in the knowledge and self-improvement market.
– Time-efficient knowledge consumption solution. – A diverse library of book genres and topics. – Offline access for premium subscribers. – Collaborations with publishers and authors. – Freemium model offering free and premium access. – A competitive edge in the knowledge and self-improvement market.
Table of Contents
Origin story
Blinkist is a German subscription service founded by Holger Seim, Niklas Jansen, Sebastian Klein, and Tobias Balling in 2012.
The platform summarises over 3,000 best-selling non-fiction books, with each summary taking approximately fifteen minutes to read,
The idea for Blinkist came after the co-founders joined the workforce and wanted a way to read and learn despite enjoying less free time.
They realized that most people experienced the same problem and those who did find the time to read were constantly distracted by their devices.
Seeking to help readers make better use of their time, the co-founders started compiling the key insights from a variety of popular non-fiction books.
To increase the likelihood that even the busiest reader would remain engaged, it was important that each insight could be read within fifteen minutes. Each fifteen-minute summary they called a Blink.
In the beginning, Blinkist garnered little investor interest and was repeatedly refused funding. But Seim, Jansen, Klein, and Balling then quit their full-time jobs to work on the app full time in any case.
Growth was further enabled by the recruitment of a robust tech team, with the company securing former SoundCloud, Twitter, and Google staff.
Blinkist also hired an army of writers and experts to read the books and create Blinks that were memorable, concise, and easy to understand.
Today, Blinkist has over 20 million users with access to over 5,000 non-fiction books from the realms of philosophy, history, politics, productivity, mindfulness, personal development, corporate culture, entrepreneurship, and creativity.
Blinkist revenue generation
Blinkist operates on the freemium business model with both a free and paid offering.
Free users receive access to one book per day that the Blinkist team selects. For unlimited access to every book hosted on the platform, there are various subscriptions available for individuals and businesses.
Blinkist Premium
Blinkist Premium gives users unlimited access to all audio and text Blinks on the website and in the app. They also receive a discount on audiobook purchases.
There are two options here:
Premium Yearly ($9.99/month, or $119.99 paid annually) – note that there is a free 7-day trial here with access to the full Blinkist library.
Premium Monthly ($19.99/month) – with the monthly plan, there is no free trial and the subscription is twice the price of the yearly commitment.
Blinkist Business
Blinkist Business is a product helping businesses cultivate curiosity and innovation within their teams. There are also two subscription options available for businesses, including:
Teams (5-200 people) – featuring access to Blinkist Premium, engagement resources, and an account management portal. Prices depend on the number of required users, or seats. For example, the price of 10 seats is $590 and the price of 200 seats is $7500. A middle range of option of 100 seats is $4600.
Enterprise (for more than 200 people) – featuring all Teams features plus dedicated customer support, curated learning paths, customizable home screen, and learning management system (LMS) integration. Enterprise customers must book a demo to receive a quote.
Affiliate commissions
Blinkist also earns money through affiliate marketing. Once a user has completed a Blink, they are given the option to share it with others or purchase the full book on Amazon.
The company is then compensated with a commission from Amazon if a consumer makes a purchase there.
Key Highlights
Blinkist Overview: Blinkist is a German book summary subscription service founded in 2012 by Holger Seim, Niklas Jansen, Sebastian Klein, and Tobias Balling. The platform offers summaries of over 3,000 best-selling non-fiction books, allowing users to learn key insights within fifteen minutes.
Revenue Generation: Blinkist’s revenue generation involves a combination of freemium subscription models and affiliate commissions.
Freemium Model: Blinkist offers a free version where users can access one book summary per day. For unlimited access to the full library, users can subscribe to Blinkist Premium. There are both yearly and monthly subscription options available.
Blinkist Premium: Users can choose between Premium Yearly and Premium Monthly plans, with the yearly plan offering a 7-day free trial and a discount on audiobook purchases.
Blinkist Business: Blinkist Business caters to businesses and offers two subscription options: Teams (5-200 people) and Enterprise (for more than 200 people). These plans provide access to premium content and additional features for team learning and development.
Affiliate Commissions: Blinkist earns affiliate commissions through its integration with Amazon. Users who complete a Blink are given the option to purchase the full book on Amazon. If a purchase is made through this link, Blinkist receives a commission from Amazon.
Origin Story: Blinkist’s founders were inspired by the desire to help busy workers make better use of their free time. They recognized the challenge of finding time to read and created a platform that condensed key insights from non-fiction books into fifteen-minute summaries called Blinks. The platform initially faced challenges but gained momentum after securing funding from Insight Partners.
User Base and Content: Blinkist has grown to serve over 20 million users, providing summaries from diverse fields such as philosophy, history, politics, productivity, mindfulness, personal development, corporate culture, entrepreneurship, and creativity.
A platform business model generates value by enabling interactions between people, groups, and users by leveraging network effects. Platform business models usually comprise two sides: supply and demand. Kicking off the interactions between those two sides is one of the crucial elements for a platform business model success.
A marketplace is a platform where buyers and sellers interact and transact. The platform acts as a marketplace that will generate revenues in fees from one or all the parties involved in the transaction. Usually, marketplaces can be classified in several ways, like those selling services vs. products or those connecting buyers and sellers at B2B, B2C, or C2C level. And those marketplaces connecting two core players, or more.
A network effect is a phenomenon in which as more people or users join a platform, the more the value of the service offered by the platform improves for those joining afterward.
In an asymmetric businessmodel, the organization doesn’t monetize the user directly, but it leverages the data users provide coupled with technology, thus have a key customer pay to sustain the core asset. For example, Google makes money by leveraging users’ data, combined with its algorithms sold to advertisers for visibility.
In an asymmetric businessmodel, the organization doesn’t monetize the user directly, but it leverages the data users provide coupled with technology, thus having a key customer pay to sustain the core asset. For example, Google makes money by leveraging users’ data, combined with its algorithms sold to advertisers for visibility. This is how attention merchants make monetize their business models.
The wholesale model is a selling model where wholesalers sell their products in bulk to a retailer at a discounted price. The retailer then on-sells the products to consumers at a higher price. In the wholesale model, a wholesaler sells products in bulk to retail outlets for onward sale. Occasionally, the wholesaler sells direct to the consumer, with supermarket giant Costco the most obvious example.
A retail business model follows a direct-to-consumer approach, also called B2C, where the company sells directly to final customers a processed/finished product. This implies a business model that is mostly local-based, it carries higher margins, but also higher costs and distribution risks.
A B2B2C is a particular kind of business model where a company, rather than accessing the consumer market directly, it does that via another business. Yet the final consumers will recognize the brand or the service provided by the B2B2C. The company offering the service might gain direct access to consumers over time.
The term “crowdsourcing” was first coined by Wired Magazine editor Jeff Howe in a 2006 article titled Rise of Crowdsourcing. Though the practice has existed in some form or another for centuries, it rose to prominence when eCommerce, social media, and smartphone culture began to emerge. Crowdsourcing is the act of obtaining knowledge, goods, services, or opinions from a group of people. These people submit information via social media, smartphone apps, or dedicated crowdsourcing platforms.
While the term has been coined by Andrew Lampitt, open-core is an evolution of open-source. Where a core part of the software/platform is offered for free, while on top of it are built premium features or add-ons, which get monetized by the corporation who developed the software/platform. An example of the GitLab open core model, where the hosted service is free and open, while the software is closed.
Open source is licensed and usually developed and maintained by a community of independent developers. While the freemium is developed in-house. Thus the freemium give the company that developed it, full control over its distribution. In an open-source model, the for-profit company has to distribute its premium version per its open-source licensing model.
The freemium – unless the whole organization is aligned around it – is a growth strategy rather than a businessmodel. A free service is provided to a majority of users, while a small percentage of those users convert into paying customers through the sales funnel. Free users will help spread the brand through word of mouth.
A freeterprise is a combination of free and enterprise where free professional accounts are driven into the funnel through the free product. As the opportunity is identified the company assigns the free account to a salesperson within the organization (inside sales or fields sales) to convert that into a B2B/enterprise account.
In a franchained businessmodel (a short-term chain, long-term franchise) model, the company deliberately launched its operations by keeping tight ownership on the main assets, while those are established, thus choosing a chain model. Once operations are running and established, the company divests its ownership and opts instead for a franchising model.
Gennaro is the creator of FourWeekMBA, which reached about four million business people, comprising C-level executives, investors, analysts, product managers, and aspiring digital entrepreneurs in 2022 alone | He is also Director of Sales for a high-tech scaleup in the AI Industry | In 2012, Gennaro earned an International MBA with emphasis on Corporate Finance and Business Strategy.
