How big is the publication industry in Bangladesh?

The publication industry is at-least $1.5 Billion in Bangladesh. The children book, non-fiction and educational book are the fastest growing categories.

When I started my own children book publication back in 2019, everyone was skeptical. There are hundreds of children book publishers and the market size is merely BDT 100 crore. That means, a children book publisher can make only BDT 1 crore on average. That's not a great market to begin with.

But I saw it differently. I don't need to confine myself to Bangladesh - the language is not an issue anymore. The distribution through Amazon and other platforms can be done if the books are of high quality. To me, children book has the highest scalability in the entire publication industry - physical book, e-book, audio-book, animated content, merchandise opportunity, character royalty and so on.

I knew Toy Market in Bangladesh is growing 18% per year and was $1.5 Billion in 2019. Children book, if packaged well, can enter into the Toy and learning product category.

But at its core - the product (e.g book) needs to stand out. The content, the paper quality, illustration, overall design, engagement of the children - all need to be insanely great and 10X better than the next competition.

So we did and within 3 years, Goofi is the most recognizable brand in the children publishing industry with a strong follower base who regularly purchase our books in both online and from retail.

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Let's come back to the publication industry now. Before COVID-19 hit and wipe out nearly 30% of the entire market in Year 2020 and 2021, the industry was growing at a healthy rate of 15-18% per year.

According to my estimate here is the breakdown according to the type: Educational Books (BDT 10,000 crore), Trade Books (BDT 2,000 crore). Educational book means guidebook, supporting educational books for schools etc. Trade book means 'a book that is published by a commercial publisher for a general readership'.

Children books can be categorized both in 'Educational Books' and in 'Trade books' category. For example, when we have published Goofi Math Series - a series for early grade children, that will be considered under 'Educational Book' category. But when we publish Goofi EI Series - a story book series to develop Emotional Intelligence of children, that will be considered under 'Trade book' category.

Children book industry under 'Trade book' category - meaning story book, picture book, illustration book etc. is BDT 300 crore.

There are around 100 companies who publish textbooks, help guides based on academic curriculum for students from Grade 1 to 12. But five companies - Panjeeri, Lecture, Onupam, Puthiniloy, Jupitar holds 70% of the market share. These companies mostly sell books that are 'Educational Book' category - holding around BDT 10,000 crore market.

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Challenges for Educational Book market industry

Educational book market is categorized in few sectors - Guidebook for School level (Grade 1 to 12), BCS and other job preparation guide, and University entry guides. With the new curriculum change by the Government and the assessment system, the entire School-level guidebook industry will change. This is by far the largest segment.

A decade ago, in 2010, a new curriculum was introduced. Before that, guidebooks were only published for SSC and HSC level exam. Once Government introduced two more public exams in Grade 5 and Grade 8, the publishers quickly jump into that opportunity to start producing guidebooks for even lower grades - instantly making the market size double.

While policymakers thought introducing the new curriculum - 'Creative Curriculum' it would curtail the Guidebook industry and reduce the out-of-pocket cost on education for parents, it actually didn't work.

Again in 2022, with the new curriculum development and new assessment system development, we will see how these big publishing companies adapt their contents, books to the new system. If they can't, it will significantly reduce the overall market. The need for guidebook as supporting materials to get good marks in exams may decline if the exam (assessment system) changes.

This will be the biggest challenge for the companies who are making guidebooks.

Impact of Edtech on publishing industry

With the rise of edtech companies like 10 Minutes School, how it will impact the Educational Book market industry?

Since the edtech companies are making video-based contents, quiz, assessment contents, it may directly compete with this industry. These edtech companies are not only getting into K-12 market, but also in job preparation, university entry exams too. With better content, price point and dynamic learning opportunity that a book can't provide, the edtech may eat up a major revenue of these publication companies. Maybe not now, but definitely with the next decade.

The edtech will not just directly compete with the coaching centers and private tuition market (which is BDT 25,000 crore), but also compete with 'Educational Book' market industry. And some of them, like 10 Minute School, will directly enter into e-book, supporting educational book market.

Opportunity for New Entrepreneurs

Any new entrepreneur or existing entrepreneur who wants to enter into the publishing industry, needs to have a strong multiple-media strategy. This means, you shouldn't aim only for book printing and selling business. It will minimize your opportunity to generate revenue from multiple sources - like TV show, animation, character licensing, merchandise, game, audio-visual contents etc.

You should consider 'Book' as your base content and then re-produce other forms of contents based on the book. Or you may have other form of content (video, animation, comics, games etc.) and then produce books based on those characters and stories.

Think how Disney works in different media with their contents.

For any new entrepreneur, building a multi-media strategy around books, the characters of the books (if any) should be the key to success. This strategy can be applied for any type of Book Industry - fictional, non-fictional, children book or educational books.

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If you are interested and excited about the book publishing industry and want to work on building the market bigger, reach out to me at [email protected]