Perlego: the Spotify of the university textbooks

The study is important and gratified. But all the students know that there is a price to pay for the culture, literally. The biggest problem when we are going to follow a course of study, especially a university one, is the cost of the books. This is the reason that pushes many young guys to copy whole books and to go around with flying papers and a substantially weight on their shoulders. It is for this reason than that Perlego was born, an app of services in streaming with monthly subscription, fully dedicated to the universitary education.

“No day when you have learned something was lost” – David Eggings

What Perlego is

Perlego was born by an idea of two ex universitary students of the Bocconi in Milan, Gauthier Van Malderen and Oliviero Muzi Falconi. They, moved to London after the studies, gave life to the start up that has as purpose the one to revolutionize that sector which is mostly affected by the expensive books: the university.

The application is usable like every other service of digital editorial, accessible from pc, tablet or smartphone. The library contains already more than 200 thousand books, between academic and professional texts. Unlike the other e-books we don’t have to buy every book, that even with reduced costs compared with the paper ones, we are talking anyway about significant amounts. But the service is with monthly subscription. By suscribing to it we have access to the whole library of Perlego.

Right for this functioning with monthly subscription, Perlego was soon called the Spotify of the universitary books.

Let’s make some math

Like we said the idea of the two ex students was born right from a necessity. After experienced the looming cost of the universitary texts on themselves they decided to help who like them is in the same conditions.

Like the two founders of Perlego tell the universitary students have to spend every year hundreds of euros to by the universitary books. Sometimes they buy one book for amounts that go around the 50€, to then read only few chapters of it. Other times a single exam needs even more than one book.

To try to amortize the universitary expenses the students try to look for used books or to sell them back when the academic year ends. But too often this is impossible, because the editions change almost every yeaer. And so one must use the well known method of the copies.

Felt all of it on their own skin the two students decided to do something to help everyone with these needs.

It was so born Perlego, that, after some counts, worth much  more than every used or copied book. Without calculate that, in the case of the copies, one entered in a loop that challenged the copyright, by damaging authors and editors.

How does Perlego work

We are really used to heard about services in streaming and in subsription, there isn’t any doubt, so, that even this project will find the right success.

“The subscription services are quickly spreading in almost all the media like music, movies, news, but this didn’t happen in the case of the academic editory. So, after a master degree in Cambridge in the 2016, my partner Gauthier thought to fill that empty, by involving me in the project”, tells Falconi.

The library of Perlego has, like we said, about 200 thousand e-books. They are manuals and texts for the exams, essays, publications, reports and lists of recomended books by the experts. All of it is available and open for the cost of the monthly subscription of 14€.

“There are titles that go from the economy and management to the art, from the physics to the phylosophy, enriched by many functions, like the possibility to underline, to take notes, to mention sources, to faithfully reproduce online the experience of real study”.

Perlego is available now on pc and tablet but it’s arriving the app for mobile and the version in audio book. The two founders have clear ideas about it and they want to expande the library soon, enlarging it even to the compulsory school, in order that no one has to suffer the expensive book. Everyone has the right to study breaking down the economic barriers and everything is easier thanks to the digital.

This post is also available in: Italiano