Booksfree is an online

ONLINE

ONLINE is a magazine for information systems first published in 1977. The publisher Online, Inc. was founded the year before. In May 2002, Information Today, Inc. acquired the assets of Online Inc....

 book

Book

A book is a set or collection of written, printed, illustrated, or blank sheets, made of hot lava, paper, parchment, or other materials, usually fastened together to hinge at one side. A single sheet within a book is called a leaf or leaflet, and each side of a leaf is called a page...

 rental company, the first to offer flat rate

Flat rate

A flat fee, also referred to as a flat rate or a linear rate, refers to a pricing structure that charges a single fixed fee for a service, regardless of usage. Rarely, it may refer to a rate that does not vary with usage or time of use...

 rental-by-mail to customers in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. Established in 2000 and headquartered in Vienna, Virginia

Vienna, Virginia

Vienna is a town in Fairfax County, Virginia, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, it had a population of 15,687. Significantly more people live in zip codes with the Vienna postal addresses bordered approximately by Interstate 66 on the south, Interstate 495 on the east, Route 7 to...

, it boasts an inventory of over 100,000 titles and more than 13,000 subscribers. On June 8, 2007 the company announced that it had delivered its millionth book.

Corporate history

The company was founded in 2000 by Douglas Ross, who had previously run a computer systems company, and Andrew Bilinski, who had worked for the US Air Force, EDS

Electronic Data Systems

HP Enterprise Services is the global business and technology services division of Hewlett Packard's HP Enterprise Business strategic business unit. It was formed by the combination of HP's legacy services consulting and outsourcing business and the integration of acquired Electronic Data Systems,...

 & BDM International. Ross originally come up with the idea for Booksfree in 1999, and after selling his company was looking at what to do next. US$

United States dollar

The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....

1 million of start-up funding was provided by friends & associates. In 2008, Booksfree was recognized by Inc. Magazine as one of America’s top 5,000 fastest growing privately held companies. In February 2009 they shipped their 2 millionth book.

Business model

The company has been described as "the books version of Netflix

Netflix

Netflix, Inc., is an American provider of on-demand internet streaming media in the United States, Canada, and Latin America and flat rate DVD-by-mail in the United States. The company was established in 1997 and is headquartered in Los Gatos, California...

", and therefore has a similar business model to online DVD rental

Online DVD rental

DVD-by-mail services allow a person to rent DVDs, Blu-ray Discs, video games and VCDs, among other film media online; for delivery by mail. Generally, all interaction between the renter and the rental company takes place through the company's website....

 companies. Titles are offered in paperback

Paperback

Paperback, softback or softcover describe and refer to a book by the nature of its binding. The covers of such books are usually made of paper or paperboard, and are usually held together with glue rather than stitches or staples...

, CD

Compact Disc

The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...

 & MP3

MP3

MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III, more commonly referred to as MP3, is a patented digital audio encoding format using a form of lossy data compression...

 CD audiobook formats. Separate monthly membership plans are offered for each medium starting at $9.99 for books, $12.99 for MP3-CD audiobooks & $22.49 for CD & MP3 CD audiobooks. A combination membership encompassing all media is also available. Each plan limits the number of items that can be checked out at any one time. Subscribers can pay a higher monthly fee in order to increase that limit. It is also possible to rent individual titles without having a membership.

Memberships

Subscriptions to the site have grown from 4,000 in 2002 and 5,000 in 2003 to over 13,000 in 2007. The vast majority of Bookfree's subscribers are women, and the company has received coverage in many magazines aimed primarily at a female readership such as Woman's Day

Woman's Day

Woman's Day is aimed at a female readership, covering such subjects as food, nutrition, fitness, beauty and fashion. The magazine edition is one of the "Seven Sisters", a group of women's service magazines....

, First for Woman, and O, The Oprah Magazine

O, The Oprah Magazine

O: The Oprah Magazine, sometimes simply abbreviated to O, is a monthly magazine founded by Oprah Winfrey and Hearst Corporation.-Overview:...

.

Competitive environment

The company's founders were quoted in 2002 as considering their main competition to be libraries and online book retailers, noting that each has drawbacks compared with Booksfree. Comparisons between the services generally focus upon the availability of audiobooks from Booksfree and their decision to not carry hardcover

Hardcover

A hardcover, hardback or hardbound is a book bound with rigid protective covers...

books..