UK publisher Harlequin has announced a partnership with biNu to distribute its portfolio of over 8,700 eBooks to feature phone users in developing mobile markets.

The move will enable over 5m mobile phone users on the biNu platform in India, Africa and other growth markets to download world leading romantic fiction from a Mills & Boon-branded shop.

biNu has 700,000 users in India, 1.2m users across Africa and 500,000 users in Nigeria, where tablet, eReader and even paperback penetration is low.

biNu says its cloud-based platform, which is optimised for a wide range of feature phones widely used in Asian, Africa and S. American territories, is 10 times faster than standard mobile browsers, delivering a “smartphone-style” experience, and access to Facebook, YouTube and now eBooks via mass-market feature phone handsets.

Working with biNu, Worldreader, the social enterprise whose mission is to stimulate reading in the growth markets, will deliver Harlequin’s English language digital books to markets for whom English is an important second language.

“We’ve already established a successful print business around the world, but it is our aim to continue to find ways to make our content available to where women are across the world in easy and accessible ways,” said Tim Cooper, commercial director for Harlequin (UK). “Working with biNu has created a real opportunity for us to reach women in global markets who don’t have access to high end tablet or smartphone technology. With the biNu feature phone application we will be at the heart of their reading experience.”