Piracy: overcoming the biggest threat to revenues no one is talking about

Academic publishing for higher education is a $19 billion market. The price of textbooks has risen by more than 800% since the 1970s. Ironically, the higher prices aren’t benefiting publishers, as students are turning to the secondary market and piracy. Until recently, publisher’s focus has been on reducing the impact of the secondary market, but during the pandemic online piracy has boomed and is eroding overall revenue.

Over 1 billion textbooks are being illegally pirated each year and efforts to block these downloads are proving ineffective. Learning from the TV and Film industry, it is clear that using legal avenues to block IP and take down torrent sites is ultimately futile. The solution is aggregating content for students through an affordable subscription model.

Perlego is an inclusive online library of academic resources and tools. With accessibility and affordability at its core, students can access a whole library of resources for as long as they like, from any device which reduces the demand for piracy. Publishers recoup lost revenue and can access new audiences.

There are various ways in which Perlego can support publishers in their fight against piracy – Gauthier van Malderen, CEO and co-founder of Perlego, as well as Matthew Jones, VP Content Acquisition & Strategy at Perlego, can discuss:

The scope of the online piracy problem and its rise during the Pandemic
Quantifying the hidden impact online piracy is having on publisher revenues
Why using legal means to block piracy are ineffective
Taking lessons from TV and Film on the risks of industry fragmentation from competing subscription services
How Perlego is transforming the textbook publishing industry by bringing it online with an inclusive digital library that aggregates the majority of global publishers on an all-you-can-read model