In a nation often perceived as non-reading, a new digital book app now available in Mexico hopes to prove otherwise.
The Brazilian app Skeelo — which provides users one free e-book per month — has launched in Mexico after showcasing a month ago at the Guadalajara International Book Fair.
Its aim is to help close the country’s reading gap through free, tech-driven access to books.
Although 2025 data from the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI) shows that, among those who read, 12-and-older Mexicans average about 3.2 books per year, earlier INEGI data had shown the figure to be 2.4 per year.
That’s a number that Skeelo’s founders say they can multiply six times with a one-book-a-month model that’s “very similar to a book subscription club,” founder and CEO Rodrigo Meinberg said.
It would be “impressive” if Mexicans can go from reading two books per year to 12, he added in his presentation at the book fair.
“We have a very different format from other digital book delivery platforms because we don’t believe in the ‘Netflix of books’ model,” he said. “If we consider the reading consumption patterns in [Mexico], why put 50,000 or 100,000 titles on a platform if people only read an average of two per year?The goal is to encourage the reading of one good book per month per user.”
Founded in Brazil in 2019, Skeelo reportedly now serves 2.7 million users there.
In Mexico, the app is partnering with major telecom providers, which will allow customers of services such as Izzi and Sky to receive one e-book per month at no additional charge. Each title sits on a user’s virtual shelf.
“Our model consists of not charging the customer more for the reading service,” Meinberg said. “We have managed to demonstrate to large companies that books have a very strong institutional value … [and] that all of this generates significant added value within their subscriptions.”
The company said it plans to invest 200 million pesos (US $11.2 million) in Mexico in 2026, including 80 million pesos (US $4.5 million) for copyright acquisitions and expansion of its 3,000-title Spanish-language catalog.
According to 2023 data from INEGI’s Module on Reading, the proportion of Mexicans who read has fallen more than 12% since 2016, with many non-readers saying they were never encouraged to visit libraries or bookstores, and have parents that don’t read.
Internationally, Mexico ranked second-to-last out of 108 nations on UNESCO’s “index of reading” survey about a decade ago — with only 2% of the population having the lifelong habit of reading. That survey noted that only 2.8 books per year were read by the average Mexican, compared to 7.5 in Spain and 12 in Germany.
“The book, despite being the third strongest form of content consumption on smartphones, has been left out of technological strategies,” Meinberg said.
With reports from El Economista and El Sol de México
