France’s 3rd Largest Online Bookseller Launches Open-source E-book Platform

In Global Trade Talk by Olivia Snaije

By Olivia Snaije

A new open source platform for e-books is getting ready to launch next month in France. CEO Guillaume Decitre, of

Decitre.fr, France’s third largest online bookstore, created the ‘tea’, the e-book alternative, with e-book tech experts Valérie Heppe Collin and Eric Daspet. Decitre, who spent ten years in Silicon Valley working in capital risk and as an entrepreneur, wanted to design an open source for e-books allowing readers to purchase any kind of book on any type of e-reader.

All publishers can list their catalogues at ‘tea’ and any bookshop or retailer will be able to personalize the site. Decitre is undaunted by Amazon and Apple and said that “nothing” in the business is set in stone. ‘tea’ will launch in April at first for Bookeen and Android and a month later for HTML5, which will be compatible with Apple and Kindle Fire. There will be a demonstration of ‘tea’ at the Paris book fair this week and the website is currently being translated into English.

About the Author

Olivia Snaije

Olivia Snaije is a journalist and editor based in Paris who writes about translation, literature, graphic novels, the Middle East, and multiculturalism. She is the author of three books and has contributed to newspapers and magazines including The Guardian, The Global Post, and The New York Times.