Oyster shutters its ebook service

[Nate the great]

Oyster announced late Monday afternoon that it was shutting down its ebook service. Rumors are circulating that the company has been sold, but all we know at this time is that Oyster will be:

taking steps to sunset the existing Oyster service over the next several months. If you are an Oyster reader you will receive an email personally regarding your account in the next few weeks. We look forward to sharing more details soon, but rest assured, your account will continue to operate normally in the meantime.

Not surprised.

Oyster was the smaller than Scribd or KU, and after Scribd faced a couple setbacks this summer, it was obvious that Oyster would soon have problems as well.

The only remaining question is whether someone bought Oyster, and what is going to happen to the tech. Would anyone care to guess?

The Digital Reader

[SCION]

Wow, another one bites the dust.

[tubemonkey]

It's expensive to set up a private library service and these companies just don't have the funding.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by SCION

Wow, another one bites the dust.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rY0WxgSXdEE

Odds that Scribd is buying the carcass?

[Nate the great]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rY0WxgSXdEE

Odds that Scribd is buying the carcass?

Slim to none. The current rumor is Google (see my post).

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by Nate the great

Slim to none. The current rumor is Google (see my post).

Might make some sense.
Google is not afraid of throwing money away on "me too".

[rkomar]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

It's expensive to set up a private library service and these companies just don't have the funding.

Libraries wouldn't be able to afford it either if they had to buy a new book for each loan (at least that seems to be Scribd's case). I don't know if Oyster had the same problem.

[Dopedangel]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

Might make some sense.
Google is not afraid of throwing money away on "me too".

Google paid for the developers not the company. But I am wondering Google with its huge ad network we might see an ad based reader in addition to a subscription based model. Something like they have with youtube.

[Blossom]

I never tried Oyster but I am sad to see the model fail so quickly.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by Dopedangel

Google paid for the developers not the company. But I am wondering Google with its huge ad network we might see an ad based reader in addition to a subscription based model. Something like they have with youtube.

I'm thinking Google might want the developers to set up their own subscription service as a complement to their bookstore. Unlike Oyster and scribd they have money to burn so they might last long enough to grow a measurable customer base.

[kyrilson]

Majorly bummed about this. I really enjoyed the service. Selection is a lot better than Kindle Unlimited. I've never checked out Scribd. Might have to now. Wondering if Google will open up a subscription service. If so, I'll be very interested in that.

[Logseman]

Google's subscription services have been underwhelming so far. This is bad news.

[kennyc]

Go Go Google Books.....

Oyster, an e-book subscription company, announced that it would cease operations of its two-year-old service.

In a post to its blog on Monday, the New York-based company, which has raised about $17 million, did not say why it was shuttering its current e-book subscription service. Oyster also suggested that it would focus on other unspecified e-book ventures following the closure of its subscription business.

That unspecified venture, it turns out, will be at Google GOOGL +0.86%. A Google spokesman confirmed a report from Recode that the search giant had hired some members of the Oyster team TISI +%. The new hires will be working in the books section of the Google Play store, the spokesman said. He declined to say how many Oyster employees are joining Google or what, specifically, they would do.....

http://www.forbes.com/sites/ryanmac/...rs-operations/

[Joykins]

I haven't heard anything about Scribd going under. It probably lost a lot of romance readers in its bid to prove profitable, but it's done two things that might help it stay afloat:

* limit the romance offerings, by reducing and rotating catalogue. Readers were gobbling that stuff down like crack (myself included). There's no way they could have paid royalties for it all based on what we were paying. I've still been using the service for YA (which reads as quickly but doesn't have the same following) and SF (slower going altogether).

* limit the audiobook listens. There is a monthly credit for high-demand audiobooks now (they roll over), and unlimited listens on another grouping of audiobooks.

I think tiered subscriptions might also be successful in this space.

Since there is reporting that Google has acquired the Oyster staff to work in their ebook division. I wonder if Google is interested in launching a subscription service to compete with Scribd and KU?

[ProfCrash]

NPR said that Google was snapping up Oyster employees