Pearson To Make Money From Second-Hand Sales By Turning  Its Textbooks Into NFTs

Educational Textbook publisher Pearson has just revealed its plans to convert its textbooks to NFT. Students mostly don't require their textbooks after completing studies. Thus, dropping textbook NFTs which can be sold on the secondary market is an excellent way for Pearson to get money from second-hand sales.

Pearson’s CEO Andy Bird explained that the sale of textbook NFTs allows the publisher to track the ownership of the textbook, even when it is resold. According to Bird: “In the analogue world, a Pearson textbook was resold up to seven times, and we would only participate in the first sale.”

According to CEO Bird, “the move to digital helps diminish the secondary market”. He continued by saying that “technology like blockchain and NFTs allows us to participate in every sale of that particular item as it goes through its life.”

However re-selling NFTs in a purpose-built app differs from physical textbooks sold locally. The transfer cost is built into the NFT’s smart contract in the digital world, so it’s almost impossible to sidestep. In real life, one can sell a book without scanning a barcode with the embedded NFT. And students are naturally penny-pinching, so they might be keen to sidestep a 5% tax.

But recurring revenue from textbooks is not Pearson’s only interest in blockchain. The other prospect is to hold classes within virtual worlds.

“We have a whole team working on the implications of the metaverse,” said Bird.