Personalized Recommendations Help Yandex Books Readers Finish Books 2.5 Times More Often
Yandex Books has recorded a 2.5-fold increase in completion rates thanks to personalized recommendations in its storefront features.
Speaking at the 39th Moscow International Book Fair, Vitaly Grigorash, head of the service, said the algorithms have become better at accounting for the interests and behavior of individual users. This helps readers become more immersed in books and spend more time reading. According to Grigorash, 7.5 million of the 49 million users of the Yandex Plus multi-service subscription use Yandex Books each month, while about 30% of the book service’s subscribers already use its AI features.
One such feature, “Previously in the Book,” reminds users of key events and plot twists after a break in reading without revealing spoilers. Among audiobook listeners, it increases reading depth by 8.6 percentage points, while for readers of text-based books, the increase is 3 percentage points.
Users of the “Virtual Narrator” spend more time with books and read more deeply, while finishing nonfiction books about 1.5 times more often. The service has also introduced an AI companion that can recommend books based on users’ interests, remind them what happened in previous chapters and explain unclear passages.
