Quote:
Originally Posted by ZodWallop
I doubt Kobo abandoned the USA due to concerns about anti-intellectualism. Why would they team up with Walmart if that were the case?
More likely, Kobo struggled to find a partner in the USA once Borders closed and Kobo has been seeking an entryway back ever since.
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Who *could* they team up with?
- Borders died, B&N rolled their own (poorly), ditto Target (but worse)..
- They tried the ABA gang and got nowhere, unavoidably, since all Indies combined barely total 5% of print.
- Rakuten should have been a fair partner but after they bought Buy.com they turned it into a B2B operation instead of B2C and they've shown no interest in helping sell content.
- eBay likewise has no interest in digital content
- Half-price is more about used books, Hudson is about location, and BAM is small and regional.
- Wal-mart expects suppliers to do the marketing and Kobo expects the retailer to do it. So neither did it.
What remains is Apple (they prefer a private garden) and Microsoft whose bread and butter is tools and technology and they gave up on ebooks too soon. By the time they realized it it was too late. Besides, they do best in corporate and hardware.
Kobo's problem is they really are too small to play in a market as big as the US and their business model only works with local partners doing the heavy lifting. (The entire company, worldwide, is 350 employees. There's only so much they can do.) Their best bet after Borders died was B&N.
They might end up buying the Nook customers if Daunt really is all about pbooks, but if he does he won't be spending money to help Kobo so it won't be too useful long term.
It's a tough nut to crack and unfortunately it's the most profitable by far.
They're trying much better than any of the other wannabes but trying isn't enough.