When we want to notice a movie, we head towards Letterboxd, for video games, there are OpenCritic and Metacritic. For books, manga or comics, we can count on two main players in the middle, Goodreds and Babelio.
The latter, created in France in 2007 by reading enthusiasts, allows you to register your books scanning your barcode and then share your opinions about a job we just finished. An essential social network, which has seen its audience diversify according to Fashions.
An essentially feminine social network
Successful novels, granted or not, to manga, to comics, Babelio has become one of the references for anyone who wishes today to build their virtual library. But at a time when classical social networks, such as Tiktok, also become places where you can find something to read, Babelio is presented as a credible and useful alternative, which can also have an impact on success in the bookstores of a book.
“We prefer to have users,” explains Guillaume Teisseire, co -Funder of Babelio, “but what we must understand is that we have two communities, those who are registered and participate, and those who come to visit the site to have recommendations.”
This does not represent anything of 2.1 million users, for more than 8 million visitors per month, with an average age of 35 years, according to the average reader of books in France.
1,700 daily reviews
If its users generate the largest activity of Babelio, the platform does not forget its editorial part, made, in particular, of interviews with authors and events, such as the Babelio award (which has rewarded The cleaning woman in 2024) that takes place every June. Editorial associations also allow us to offer books to readers who wish to discover new products.
With the success of Booktok, which brings together videos that advise books on Tiktok, Babelio has not seen a renewed interest in practice, see more trend as a fashion, without looking at it with disdain: “Babelio has always had interest in our visitors who have never been the ambition. Our ambition is to be in the landscape like a wikipedia, but we saw trees. Bookto, but that they have never denied it. Ambition, in the landscape, like a landscape, like a landscape, like a landscape, but we saw Trees.
Babelio wants to be the “long time” platform, in which, therefore, we will go regularly. Especially because it does not have the same purpose as a classical social network: here, it is about classifying your books, bringing a critical aspect or asking about literary news. The opinions of other users, which can also be found in Tiktok or Instagram, are, therefore, an advantage, however, the interest of being less coded, since they are available in writing.
An element that has taken a long time to be accepted by the profession. When he started, Babelio must convince the merits of his focus with the publishers: “It was very long,” recalls Guillaume Teisseire, “the editorials saw readers as something distant, because the client was above all the bookcase.”
“Conscious” editorials from mouth
A conservative environment that has taken its time, but that has finally changed the mind over the years, especially thanks to the very different genres that are now chronicized by users, especially manga or romance, that adolescents and young adults love young adults.
But what impact on Babelio on the sale of books? Thanks to its important user base, the platform is proud to be a good way to know the trends of the moment. Romance or dark romance have taken a considerable place in the social network, at the same time as the success of these books in bookstores.
“We are convinced that we have an impact on sales, even if it is not necessarily obvious because the public prefers to buy in the traditional bookstore, but in Fnac and Amazon, through the commercial links present in the files, we are the first book business provider, there is a real recipe thanks to Babelio,” says Guillaume Teisseire.
Constructive criticisms of the Trolls
But if it is known that social networks are a supplier of debates and controversies, Babelio remains outside the “trolling” trends, which consists in criticizing a work for the issues that it covers or due to its author.
The platform certainly constituted an internal moderation team, but did not see the arrival of a negative phenomenon, because according to its co -founder, the medium of literature opens the path to constructive criticism: “When you have a 75%female community, there may be less bias, and there is also less pleasure in the massacre game, because our users first come to talk about the books they have not loved.
However, the part dedicated to political books remains in the viewfinder of moderation with fans or, on the contrary, the opponents, who try to influence the place of a work in Babelio.
From a virtual library to its beginnings, with a complete social network, Babelio, therefore, organized its mute according to the need for readers, to leave a literary world far from being as open of spirits as they are: “On strong issues, such as bullying, we will certainly have fewer advice in book stores and, therefore, we will go to Babelio.”
Source: BFM TV
