Upromise World's Largest eBook Store?

goldilocks · 08-22-2009, 11:19 AM

I received an email a few weeks ago from Upromise (for college savings).

Quote:

NOW OPEN!
World's Largest eBook Store
Now you can download eBooks and read them on your iPhone™ mobile device, BlackBerry® smartphone, or PC. All you'll need is the FREE Barnes & Noble eReader software, available at the new eBooks Store. Included are FREE eBooks to get you started! Plus, get 3% college savings on every eligible purchase.

More than 700,000 titles available with bestsellers as low as $9.99!

So, what do you think? Is it really the World’s Largest?

Seems they could all claim to be the largest, Amazon, Sony, or B&N?
Does it really matter?! As long as you can read it on your reader and it doesn’t cost an arm & a leg!

Goldilocks

“Clowns to the left of me, Jokers to the right, and here I am, Stuck in the middle with you.”

emellaich · 08-22-2009, 11:49 AM

OK, I'll bite -- because I don't think you really meant your comment seriously. I suspect you just meant this as spam.

So if we want to define this as the world's largest ebook store we need to know more about how they are hosted. If you really want to be the largest ebook store, you only need to sell one book -- just make sure you have a really large server farm

.

If you sell 10 million books, but you only use shared web hosting I think you are pretty small.

p.s. I didn't visit your link, but upromise is a pretty well known web site, and I suspect they just private brand the Barnes & Noble store.

p.p.s. If you really mean to have a serious conversation on this, there is a convention most people are more comfortable with. Come here, visit a while and add a little value to the forums before you begin steering folks to web links that offer you some gain. Leading off one of your first posts with a pitch to buy something from you (figuratively) is generally seen as spam.

Phogg · 08-22-2009, 11:57 AM

Perhaps they have an illustrated manual that takes up a couple terabytes.

That might be the world's largest ebook, and they are the store that sells it...

goldilocks · 08-22-2009, 12:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by emellaich

OK, I'll bite -- because I don't think you really meant your comment seriously. I suspect you just meant this as spam.

So if we want to define this as the world's largest ebook store we need to know more about how they are hosted. If you really want to be the largest ebook store, you only need to sell one book -- just make sure you have a really large server farm

.

If you sell 10 million books, but you only use shared web hosting I think you are pretty small.

p.s. I didn't visit your link, but upromise is a pretty well known web site, and I suspect they just private brand the Barnes & Noble store.

p.p.s. If you really mean to have a serious conversation on this, there is a convention most people are more comfortable with. Come here, visit a while and add a little value to the forums before you begin steering folks to web links that offer you some gain. Leading off one of your first posts with a pitch to buy something from you (figuratively) is generally seen as spam.

I'm not trying to sell anything. This was not a spam message. This was from an actual email I received from Upromise. I just thought it was interesting they are claiming to be that B&N is the World's Largest. I don't think it means how many times they sell one ebook, I think it means how many different ebooks they are selling. Such as, B&N is selling 700,000 ebooks vs Amazon selling 300,000.

If you are familiar with Upromise, then you should know that companies form an alliance (I don't know their rules) with them to donate money for COLLEGE educations. It can only be used for that purpose. What kind of gain do you think I am getting?

Goldilocks

Moe The Cat · 08-22-2009, 12:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by goldilocks

What kind of gain do you think I am getting?

Quote:

Originally Posted by goldilocks

Please help me save for my sons’ college and follow the link below when shopping online!

That gain, right there.

Moe The Cat · 08-22-2009, 01:09 PM

Plus, you've posted the exact same message on another site here. Are you planning on having a discussion about which is the world's largest ebook store on both sites?

Dr. Drib · 08-22-2009, 01:11 PM

ALL Members:

Please do not SPAM or LINK to sites that are for commerical gain.

Editing out the link was a smart thing to do.

Thank you,
Don (Moderator)

Alexander Turcic · 08-22-2009, 01:11 PM

This hardly qualifies as "news" -> moved to the lounge.

goldilocks · 08-22-2009, 01:14 PM

I have removed the link. Sorry to have offended anyone into thinking I am asking for monetary gain when it is strictly for a college education. If I was not saviing for my son, I would happily donate to someone else's Upromise account. Afterall, the purchase price would be the same either way.

Goldilocks

Moe The Cat · 08-22-2009, 01:17 PM

Thanks for removing the link, goldilocks. Now the discussion can center around your question about which ebook store is the world's largest.

I don't know what the numbers say. People in the United States, where Amazon and the Kindle are dominant, might say Amazon is the largest. Others, outside Amazon's "sphere of influence" might say Barnes and Noble, or Sony. As you pointed out, does it really matter? Many of our members purchase from multiple ebook sites. For them, it's not a question of who sells the most ebooks, but who sells the ebooks I want, or the ebooks that are compatible with my ebook device.

Elfwreck · 08-22-2009, 01:45 PM

There's no simple way to sort out which ebook store is the "largest," because many of them sell the same public domain titles, often from the same scanned sources, either Google, Archive, or Gutenberg. Since anyone can grab thousands (tens of thousands? hundreds?) of those ebooks for free, and resell them, either with or without re-converting them to different formats, it's ridiculous to consider claims of "300,000 ebooks" vs "700,000 ebooks"... all that means is that one store has stocked up on more free public content than the other.

Also, some stores offer the same PD content in different formats, or have different original sources, and count those as different ebooks. Fictionwise has three versions of Captains Courageous by Kipling; two cost money and are secured formats, and one is free. Sony had thousands of public domain texts that it sold for $2, but offered 100 books for free to new buyers of the PRS-505, and then it added Google's epub versions, many of the same titles.

No store (rather than publisher, like Baen) makes it clear how many different copyrighted ebooks they offer. And while access to free, public domain books from store-of-your-choice may be a useful resource, sometimes the convenience is countered by formatting and other problems--Fictionwise's free public domain texts are not as good as Mobileread's.

08-22-2009, 01:17 PM	#10
Moe The Cat Bear Melt Posts: 919 Karma: 5433051 Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: Toronto Device: Google Pixel 6, Moto G9 Power (both with Fbreader) & Kindle PW2	Thanks for removing the link, goldilocks. Now the discussion can center around your question about which ebook store is the world's largest. I don't know what the numbers say. People in the United States, where Amazon and the Kindle are dominant, might say Amazon is the largest. Others, outside Amazon's "sphere of influence" might say Barnes and Noble, or Sony. As you pointed out, does it really matter? Many of our members purchase from multiple ebook sites. For them, it's not a question of who sells the most ebooks, but who sells the ebooks I want, or the ebooks that are compatible with my ebook device. Last edited by Moe The Cat; 08-22-2009 at 01:17 PM. Reason: Typo!

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08-22-2009, 11:49 AM	#2
emellaich Wizard Posts: 1,101 Karma: 4388403 Join Date: Oct 2007 Device: Palm>Ebookman>IPaq>Axim>Cybook>Kndl2>IPAD>Kndl3SO>Voyager>Oasis	OK, I'll bite -- because I don't think you really meant your comment seriously. I suspect you just meant this as spam. So if we want to define this as the world's largest ebook store we need to know more about how they are hosted. If you really want to be the largest ebook store, you only need to sell one book -- just make sure you have a really large server farm . If you sell 10 million books, but you only use shared web hosting I think you are pretty small. p.s. I didn't visit your link, but upromise is a pretty well known web site, and I suspect they just private brand the Barnes & Noble store. p.p.s. If you really mean to have a serious conversation on this, there is a convention most people are more comfortable with. Come here, visit a while and add a little value to the forums before you begin steering folks to web links that offer you some gain. Leading off one of your first posts with a pitch to buy something from you (figuratively) is generally seen as spam.

08-22-2009, 11:57 AM	#3
Phogg PHD in Horribleness Posts: 2,320 Karma: 23599604 Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: In the ironbound section, near avenue L Device: Just a whole bunch. I guess I am a collector now.	Perhaps they have an illustrated manual that takes up a couple terabytes. That might be the world's largest ebook, and they are the store that sells it...

08-22-2009, 01:09 PM	#6
Moe The Cat Bear Melt Posts: 919 Karma: 5433051 Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: Toronto Device: Google Pixel 6, Moto G9 Power (both with Fbreader) & Kindle PW2	Plus, you've posted the exact same message on another site here. Are you planning on having a discussion about which is the world's largest ebook store on both sites?

08-22-2009, 01:11 PM	#7
Dr. Drib Grand Sorcerer Posts: 45,385 Karma: 59504381 Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Peru Device: KINDLE: Oasis 3, Scribe (1st), Matcha; KOBO: Libra 2, Libra Colour	ALL Members: Please do not SPAM or LINK to sites that are for commerical gain. Editing out the link was a smart thing to do. Thank you, Don (Moderator)

08-22-2009, 01:11 PM	#8
Alexander Turcic Fully Converged Posts: 18,175 Karma: 14021202 Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Switzerland Device: Too many to count here.	This hardly qualifies as "news" -> moved to the lounge.

08-22-2009, 01:14 PM	#9
goldilocks Addict Posts: 344 Karma: 1222222 Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: Florida Device: Sony PRS-505	I have removed the link. Sorry to have offended anyone into thinking I am asking for monetary gain when it is strictly for a college education. If I was not saviing for my son, I would happily donate to someone else's Upromise account. Afterall, the purchase price would be the same either way. Goldilocks

08-22-2009, 01:45 PM	#11
Elfwreck Grand Sorcerer Posts: 5,187 Karma: 25133758 Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: SF Bay Area, California, USA Device: Pocketbook Touch HD3 (Past: Kobo Mini, PEZ, PRS-505, Clié)	There's no simple way to sort out which ebook store is the "largest," because many of them sell the same public domain titles, often from the same scanned sources, either Google, Archive, or Gutenberg. Since anyone can grab thousands (tens of thousands? hundreds?) of those ebooks for free, and resell them, either with or without re-converting them to different formats, it's ridiculous to consider claims of "300,000 ebooks" vs "700,000 ebooks"... all that means is that one store has stocked up on more free public content than the other. Also, some stores offer the same PD content in different formats, or have different original sources, and count those as different ebooks. Fictionwise has three versions of Captains Courageous by Kipling; two cost money and are secured formats, and one is free. Sony had thousands of public domain texts that it sold for $2, but offered 100 books for free to new buyers of the PRS-505, and then it added Google's epub versions, many of the same titles. No store (rather than publisher, like Baen) makes it clear how many different copyrighted ebooks they offer. And while access to free, public domain books from store-of-your-choice may be a useful resource, sometimes the convenience is countered by formatting and other problems--Fictionwise's free public domain texts are not as good as Mobileread's.

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