By Andrés Delgado Darnalt
Manuvo, the Mexican app developer discussed in today’s feature story, is also involved in ebook distribution through its Odiseo platform, a digital content management and subscription platform built by the team. The tool allows individual and institutional users to manage selected digital content for large reading markets and analyze consumption patterns with an analytics tool. The idea, for example, is that airline or other transportation passengers have access to specific-content catalogues through Odiseo. This is what Carlos Mondragón, CEO of Manuvo, calls “flow use” (aprovechamiento de flujos), which is “more or less about using flows of people for your benefit.”
The Naay Box Environment is offered to libraries and other institutions as a place where children can fully immerse themselves in the digital world.
Manuvo is marketing a sector-specific version of Odiseo to libraries and small publishers under the name of Naay, where small children´s publishers and libraries can jointly manage digital content. Publishers who decide to opt in choose the books they want to have digitized by Manuvo, and the price charged to publishers is based on whether the publishers choose to offer local or remote access to the content through libraries. Libraries, on the other hand, have the option to select and buy the titles from the catalogue, install the Naay platform on their tablet or PCs, and access real time reports and statistics on popular titles and users. “So far, we’ve made agreements with children’s publishers from Argentina, Chile, Colombia and Mexico,” says Mondragón.
With government tablet purchase programs on the rise, Manuvo sees a good opportunity to brand itself as an alternative to traditional ebook platforms. According to Catalina Holguin, Manuvo’s Editorial Director for Colombia, “the Odiseo platform is the vehicle for distributing small children’s publishers’ content on a wide scale. Some children’s publishers are, understandably, afraid of taking a step into e-publishing for fear of a low return on investment, but we offer an alternative. Meanwhile, libraries have very precise needs for literary books and sadly have had sour experiences with e-book retailers. Odiseo allows us to establish our own rules.”