On July 14th, 1881, the first telephone book was released under the cumbersome name “Verzeichnis der bei der Fernsprecheinrichtung Betheiligten” [lit. “Directory of Involved Parties of Telephone Installations”]. What began with 187 entries was smirked at as the “Book of 99 Mockeries”, is now an essential institution: Das Telefonbuch is one of the most-used directory medias in Germany. And despite the digital age, 80 percent of the people in the country use the print version, according to Telekom speaker Niels Hafenrichter.
Nevertheless, the company has accommodated the digital development and began offering an electronic form of its telephone book in 1985. Five years later, a CD-Rom version was released. The online offering, which has been available since 1997, is accessed about 100 million times per month on average. Mobile access has been available for about eight years. The smartphone wave has also been kept under check: the first Telefonbuch apps were released two years ago for selected devices, now there is an app for just about every smartphone. The iPhone app in the Apple Store is now considered one of the most popular apps, with about a million downloads.