Czech company Knihobot sells millions of used books onlineCEFR B2
19 Oct 2025
Adapted from Filip Noubel, Global Voices • CC BY 3.0
Photo by Anni Karppinen, Unsplash
The Czech Republic has long traditions of book buying and secondhand bookstores. Historical censorship under the former Soviet Bloc made antikvariát shops important places to find banned or foreign books. A 2022 European Union survey found 65 percent of Czechs read between five and over ten books per year, compared with an EU average just above 52 percent. Recently, environmental awareness and a rise in online commerce after the COVID-19 pandemic have renewed interest in used books.
Knihobot, founded in 2019 by Dominik Gazdoš, turned that interest into a scalable online service. The firm picks up books for free from private owners, photographs and prices them, lists them online and finds buyers. Knihobot says it sold three million books so far this year, one million more than the same period last year. In 2022 Deloitte ranked the company the 15th fastest growing firm in Central Europe and fifth in the Czech Republic.
The company now uses automated processes and says it can receive and process 30,000 books a day and sell about 25,000 per day. It operates in nine countries: the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Austria, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands and Belgium. Marketing manager Žaneta Kratochvílová attributes growth to digital convenience, customer service, speed of delivery and a fair share of the sale for sellers; she also notes that secondhand books are especially attractive in markets such as Germany where new books have a legally fixed price.
Broader trends support Knihobot: younger generations value sustainability and recycling, many buyers want lower prices for books that look almost new, and e-readers have not ended demand for paper books as some readers seek a digital detox. The company has faced media criticism about labour conditions and book handling; Kratochvílová says most accusations are not true or are out of context. She describes warehouse work as meticulous and monotonous, adds that safety rules and the Labour Code are followed, protective equipment is provided and staff can change tasks if needed. Books that cannot be returned to circulation are sent for ecological reuse, where companies process the paper and bindings and recycled paper can be made into items such as egg cartons.
Difficult words
- censorship — official control of printed or broadcast information
- scalable — able to increase size or capacity easily
- automated — controlled or done by machines or computers
- attribute — say that something is caused by something elseattributes
- monotonous — boring because it is always the same
- reuse — use something again instead of throwing away
- binding — materials that hold pages of a book togetherbindings
Tip: hover, focus or tap highlighted words in the article to see quick definitions while you read or listen.
Discussion questions
- How might services like Knihobot change the market for new and secondhand books in your country? Give reasons and examples.
- What are the advantages and disadvantages of buying secondhand books online compared with buying new books?
- The article mentions media criticism about labour conditions. What steps should a growing company take to address such criticism while expanding its business?
