Quote:
Originally Posted by fjtorres
The headline needs to drop the word "only".
Ever since Borders folded, Kobo has shown no real interest in competing in the US.
Whatever visibility (and sales) they enjoy is the result of the work of their fans.
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Not quite true, being a ex-Sony ebook buyer and having my library transferred to Kobo, I get my daily email from Kobo pushing various ebooks, most of which I already have. They keep their toe in, but unless they come out with some compelling reason to buy from them, there really isn't a big point to challenge Amazon. Amazon has shown they are quite willing to play hardball and have a lot of clout with the US Government.
There is plenty of room outside the US for ebook stores. My guess is that we won't see major competition until all those niches are full. To truly compete, an ebook store will need to have all the major publishers on board, be open to indies or at least authors selling their backlist, and have some sort of major advantage, most likely in the area of discover-ability (i.e. quality recommendations, notifications when an author you like makes an ebook available (new or backlist)). People aren't going to shift from Amazon unless they are give a good reason to do so.