[3][4] Bookmate was created in 2007 by three former employees of the Russian edition of Look At Me - programmers Andrei Zotov and Egor Khmelev and designer Kirill Ten.

By 2010, Bookmate had a library of classic literature, contracts with publishers for electronic releases of contemporary works, and a paid subscription to a book club with social mechanics.

[5][6] In 2010, Dream Industries (DI), which also included the Russian streaming service Zvooq and the educational resource Theories and Practices, became a co-owner of Bookmate.

[3] In August 2015, Indonesian telco Indosat has announced a partnership with Bookmate to launch a mass-market mobile reading service under the Bookmate-Cipika Books brand.

[13] A regional office of Bookmate in Mexico City began operating in 2017 and continued to expand from there to countries such as Argentina, Colombia, Chile, Peru, and other Spanish-speaking nations.

[17] In an interview with Meduza, Andrew Baev said that Russia has never been the main market for Bookmate, and the company continues to work in the Balkans, Latin America, and Europe.

[13][28] Bookmate works with a large number of publishers and content aggregators around the world, including Egmont,[29] Macmillan, Gardners, Bookwire, PublishDrive, Gyldendal, Libranda, Bloomsbury, Findaway, Laguna, Parkstone International and others.