Audiobook Competition Intensifies in Sweden as Bonnier Books, Owner of BookBeat, Acquires Nextory

The proposed deal would combine two of Sweden’s leading subscription platforms while adding Nextory’s scale in markets including France and Spain.

By Carlo Carrenho, Contributing Editor

In Sweden, arguably the world’s most mature audiobook market, a major consolidation move is underway.

Bonnier Books, which owns Sweden’s largest publishing group, Bonnierförlagen, as well as audiobook subscription service BookBeat, said Tuesday (September 1) that it has entered into an agreement to acquire Nextory, one of Sweden’s three leading audiobook streaming platforms and an international player operating across the Nordic region, the DACH markets, and the Netherlands, as well as strong positions in France and Spain.

Bonnier Books will acquire all shares in Nextory in an all-cash transaction. The purchase price has not been disclosed. The deal remains subject to approval by the Swedish Competition Authority and will not formally close until regulatory clearance is granted.

The transaction would bring together two of Sweden’s largest audiobook subscription services at a time when competition in the market is intensifying.

According to Bokförsäljningsstatistiken 2025, the annual market report from the Swedish Publishers Association and the Swedish Booksellers Association, Sweden’s book market was worth more than SEK5.5 billion (US$574 million) at consumer prices in 2025. Based on the report’s figures, audiobooks represented roughly 29.7% of market value, or about SEK1.63 billion (US$170 million).

Digital book consumption in Sweden is also overwhelmingly subscription-based. For years, the market has been dominated by three leading domestic services: Storytel, BookBeat, and Nextory.

Precise market shares are not disclosed, but Storytel is widely regarded as the clear leader, with industry estimates generally putting its share at at least half of the market. BookBeat and Nextory have competed behind it for second place, with BookBeat gaining significant traction in recent years.

That makes Bonnier’s move for Nextory particularly consequential.

It also comes as Sweden’s audiobook market is opening to larger international competitors. Spotify began offering audiobooks in the country in November 2025, while Audible announced at the London Book Fair that it plans to launch a localized Swedish store. Swedish trade publication Boktugg has reported that Audible’s launch is expected this fall.

‘A Highly Competitive Combination’

Nextory was founded in Sweden in 2015 by serial entrepreneurs Shadi Bitar and Ninos Malki, who came to Sweden from Syria as children, with the aim of making books more accessible. The company’s growth has also made it a notable example of immigrant entrepreneurship in Sweden.

Nextory founder and CEO Shadi Bitar.

From the outset, Nextory pursued a somewhat different strategy from several of its largest competitors. With a catalogue of more than 1.4 million titles, the company built its core business around retail and distribution rather than ownership of publishing houses or large proprietary content catalogues. Unlike some of its major competitors, it did not build a publishing operation of its own and positioned itself as an independent platform rather than a competitor to publishers.

That stands in contrast to both Bonnier and Storytel. Bonnier, through BookBeat, operates a subscription platform alongside one of Europe’s largest publishing portfolios. Storytel, meanwhile, has moved deeper into publishing through a series of acquisitions, most notably that of Norstedts in Sweden. Both groups therefore combine distribution with direct ownership of publishing assets.

Nextory chose a different path. Its international expansion, however, has included acquisitions of its own. In 2021, Nextory acquired Spanish digital-reading subscription service Nubico, then jointly owned by Grupo Planeta and Telefónica, and later replaced the Nubico brand with Nextory in Spain. Four months later, in October 2021, Nextory acquired French subscription service Youboox, one of France’s established digital-reading platforms. The two acquisitions gave Nextory an established subscriber base, local catalogue relationships, and a faster route into two of Europe’s largest publishing markets.

“We have built Nextory into a significant and profitable business, and I am very proud of what we have achieved,” Bitar, Nextory’s CEO and co-founder, said in announcing the transaction. “We have had interest from other players before, but now both the buyer and the timing are right.” Bitar said the two companies share a view of the value of books and an ambition to increase reading and listening.

Håkan Rudels, CEO of Bonnier Books.

“Together, we create a highly competitive combination with strong prospects for continued growth in a market where scale is becoming increasingly important,” he said.

Håkan Rudels, CEO of Bonnier Books, also placed the deal in the context of a changing competitive landscape.

“It is more important than ever to have audiobook services that are fully focused on authors, readers, and listeners—particularly at a time characterized by AI-generated content and international players establishing themselves in our various markets,” Rudels said, adding that the acquisition would give Bonnier better conditions for developing digital book sales together with publishers and authors working with both companies across Europe.

For many in the Swedish market, the logic of a sale from Nextory’s side is relatively easy to see. The company was facing a strategic choice: raise additional capital and continue competing with Storytel and an increasingly strong BookBeat—while also preparing for Spotify and Audible—or find a buyer capable of giving the business greater scale. That challenge was made more acute by Nextory’s decision to remain primarily a retailer, without the publishing assets and proprietary IP held by some of its largest competitors.

The rationale for Bonnier Books is less immediately obvious. BookBeat is already performing strongly and appears to be gaining momentum both in Sweden and internationally. One clear attraction, however, is Nextory’s established scale and customer base in markets such as France and Spain.

Another possibility is that the acquisition is at least partly defensive. By buying Nextory, Bonnier not only strengthens its position in Sweden and expands its international scale, it also removes the possibility that Nextory might be acquired by a competitor or a new owner capable of turning it into a much more formidable competitor. That buyer could, in theory, have been a global platform such as Audible or Spotify, or a well-capitalized private equity or investment group prepared to finance another phase of Nextory’s growth.

For now, that remains speculation. What is clear is that, if approved, the transaction could materially reshape Sweden’s audiobook market at a time when competition from international platforms is intensifying, while also potentially altering the competitive landscape in other European markets, particularly France and Spain.