DeepDyve launches rental service for scientific research | VentureBeat | Social | by Anthony Ha

▤ Summary

But its plans go beyond search — chief executive Bill Park says the company also wants to reach a new audience for academic research, today launching what he calls “an iTunes or Netflix for research.” The business model for a scientific, medical, or technical journal is all about selling to a big academic institution, like Harvard or Stanford, Park said. That means they’re missing a huge potential audience, the country’s 50 million “knowledge workers,” a large portion of whom need to read a few technical articles every week as part of their job, or to stay on top of their field. But these technical websites charge around $30 for a single article and don’t provide anything more than a short abstract before you make a decision, so most of these readers either give up or ask someone they know with a subscription for a copy. As evidence that this is happening, Park says only 0.2. percent of visitors to these journal websites actually make a purchase, which is a pretty dismal conversion rate. The Menlo Park, Calif. company has already made deals with many academic publishers, leading to a database of 30 million articles at launch.

▦ Linked Companies

Deepdyve

$1M to $5M