PIBOCO: A world in every book
We spoke to Aksel Køie, CEO of PIBOCO, the Danish picture book and children’s book company most valued and known by the most modern families on the planet.
PIBOCO believes in reading together, picture books and the digital craft. A visual, tactile experience in an animated universe and a new story every week. PIBOCO offers a safe digital world for children, without ads. The most similar digital platform we can find in Spanish is Blabooks, but PIBOCO is committed to disseminating in as many languages as possible, thus creating greater diversity and reach for its stories.
PIBOCO was born to approach which kind of needs?
Modern families are requesting high-quality content for younger kids.
PIBOCO is a small company, what do you think that “success” should be within this sector picture books?
We select picture books from all around the world, and we want to be available in all four corners of the world. Currently, our books are out in English, French, Italian, Spanish, Danish – soon German and Korean. We want to create stories that matter for children and the people closest to them. Stories you can share together.
How do you decide which books will work for Piboco?
Our collection contains many books of award-winning illustrators and authors. The books should be of the highest visual and literary quality.
We select stories that matter. Stories that are eye-opening and make the child’s world richer.
It is important to us that the picture books are able to teach us something about ourselves and others. They should be artistic as well as educational. At the same time, the books must be relevant for kids all around the world.
«We want to create stories that matter for children and the people closest to them. Stories you can share together»
Which book/books is having more “success”/visibility in the last few months? Do you believe that there are some disadvantages of some books comparing with others depending on the age fringes for which they are directed?
In general, our interactive books are popular. Children seem to enjoy our slow animations as they offer an appropriate level of stimulation. Our interactive Original story “Lou’s Grumpy Day” is also very popular and being screened in Copenhagen Cinemas as we speak.
In PIBOCO LATAM there is a summer activity called #RallyPiboco. Have you planned more seasonal or timeless activities so that the little ones (and not so little ones) can read books from all over the world?
We just celebrated our 100th publication. We might also have a surprise coming up for Halloween.
How is an application financed with such low subscription fees?
We are generously supported by the Danish Innovation Fund, the Danish Growth Fund and our Belgian investor and co-founder.
Do you have a good feedback from the families?
We get lovely feedback from our young readers and their parents. Often they have a favourite book they want to read as a bedtime story. We also collaborate with kindergardens and libraries to get feedback from our readers.
How do you think that you could improve as a company? Is there a product that you were still not able to offer? And has any other market sector offered it before you?
We are continuously adding new books to our collection. We wish to make even more PIBOCO Originals and add more beautiful non-fiction books to our curated library.
What is PIBOCO’s goal? Have we seen it all or is there much more to find out?
Our goal is to be the globally preferred library of interactive, musical, narrated and animated picture books of the highest quality.
