Bastei Lübbe AG rolls out 'oolipo': The innovative entertainment platform is officially launched

Bastei Lübbe AG rolls out 'oolipo':
The innovative entertainment platform is officially launched

Cologne, 21 March 2017 - A new form of entertainment gets the green light: oolipo, the young platform for mobile storytelling, is now available as a full version after successful beta testing. This is the official launch of the innovative entertainment platform from Bastei Lübbe AG. oolipo makes it possible to create a whole new kind of story, combining story content with versatile smartphone functions. oolipo is particularly aimed at millennials, whose smartphone is the hub of their digital media consumption. 'There are no comparable products on the market, and we know that we are entering new territory. But we are convinced that the idea of bringing multimedia formats to smartphones via a digital platform has enormous potential', explains Thomas Schierack, CEO of Bastei Lübbe AG. The oolipo format is a perfect match for the publishing group: 'Here, we at Bastei Lübbe can fully utilise our 60 years of unique experience with story content for every age group', explains Schierack.

oolipo creates 'Originals'
The oolipo concept is inspired by successful digital media platform ideas such as Youtube or Instagram. But the approach of producing digital series using the technical possibilities offered by smartphones is new. These include the integration of video and audio material, but also typical smartphone features such as geolocation, tilt sensors and much more.

At launch, the new entertainment platform will offer so-called 'oolipo Originals'. These are in-house productions which have been developed in the new oolipo format and optimised for use on smartphones. After a successful beta testing phase, oolipo version 2.0 is now available for iOS in the App Store. The Android version is scheduled to follow in early summer. The functionality of the oolipo app will be continually expanded as part of the further development.

Credits payment model - gaming industry standard adopted
oolipo's payment model follows successful examples from the mobile games industry: Users purchase credits in the oolipo app which can be exchanged for individual episodes or whole seasons of oolipo series. One episode of an oolipo Original costs 90 credits, which is equivalent to 90 euro cents. The first episode of each series or season is available for free. In addition, after registering, each user receives a welcome bonus of 250 credits, which can be re-deemed for stories.

The complete series of 'Get used to it', which is an Originals series with a total of four episodes, will be available for free at launch. 'Get used to it' tells the story of an international NGO (non-governmental organisation) named 'Skateistan', whose goal is to introduce young women to the sport of skateboarding, in the innovative oolipo format; the story combines a modern sport with a political message to create an exciting series.

oolipo enters the stage with a total of eight English language series and four German language series, including 'London I', an Original produced by the British Youtube star Suli Breaks in association with oolipo, as well as 'The Message' from Bastei Lübbe's successful author Tibor Rode.

Plans to open the platform for creative storytellers
Within the context of continuous further development, it is planned in the medium-term to open oolipo as a platform for external content. External authors and self-publishers will have the opportunity to design their own stories using the new, multimedia oolipo format and publish them on the oolipo platform. oolipo is intended to become a central hub for the next generation of storytellers and authors, to work together with them and to give them the chance to share their work with a wide audience - this is the long-term goal of its two founders, Johannes Conrady and Ryan David Mullins.

International expansion of oolipo will happen step by step
The official launch consists of content which is tailored primarily to readers in the target markets of Germany, Austria, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Series which are particularly attractive for the US market and other English-speaking countries are planned for publication in late 2017 / early 2018. 'Our goal is first to develop these markets and then to build up our international presence step by step in the next years', says Schierack. Given the innovative character of oolipo, in Thomas Schierack's view, it is only possible to speculate on the development of user numbers: 'Our goal is to push user numbers to a seven-digit range by the end of 2019. But we are also fully aware that it is almost impossible to make realistic forecasts of which parts will be popular with readers and how quickly', says Schierack, who is also certain that 'oolipo is a great opportunity to win back the young target market which seemed to be lost to reading good content'.

About Bastei Lübbe AG:
Bastei Lübbe AG is an internationally active media group with headquarters in Cologne. Its business activities primarily focus on the development and licencing of contents which are sold worldwide in physical and digital formats. The core business of the company in the book segment covers classic publishing and periodically published puzzle magazines and novels. With its total of twelve publishing houses and imprints, the company group currently offers around 3,600 titles in the areas of fiction, non-fiction as well as books for children and young adults. In the growing segment of hardcover fiction books, the company has been the market leader in Germany for many years. At the same time, Bastei Lübbe is an engine for innovation in the area of digital media. Apart from the production of thousands of audio and ebooks, the 'digital' business unit also maintains participations in the self-publishing platform 'BookRix' and the renowned game publisher 'Daedalic Entertainment'. The digital value-added chain of Bastei Lübbe AG is rounded off through its participation in the online shop 'beam-ebooks.de' as well as the new and unique international entertainment platform 'oolipo'. Since January 2016, the participations in Daedalic Entertainment, BookRix, oolipo, Beam Shop, JV USA and Bastei Media have been bundled in Bastei Ventures GmbH.
With annual sales of nearly 104.9 million euros (financial year 2015/2016), Bastei Lübbe AG is the largest medium-sized family-run publishing business in Germany. The shares of the company have been listed in the Prime Standard segment on the Frankfurt stock exchange (WKN A1X3YY, ISIN DE000A1X3YY0) since 2013. Further information is available at www.luebbe.de.

Contact Bastei Lübbe AG:
Barbara Fischer
Head of Press and Public Relations
Phone: +49(0)221 / 82 00 28 50
Email: barbara.fischer@luebbe.de