Why Kobo didn't focus only on the U.S., home turf of Amazon

[PeterT]

https://beta.theglobeandmail.com/rep...ticle35539935/

Aside from an international e-commerce platform, being Canadian was also a plus for the e-book and e-reader retailer when seeking markets abroad.*

Even though it is ensconced in an office in Toronto's west-end Liberty Village, Rakuten Kobo Inc. knows it has to be nimble to survive in the virtual world where it does business – selling e-books and*e-readers.

"This has been a business with a lot of twists and turns. As a Canadian company going against [one of] the largest e-commerce [companies] in the world, we have had to do our share of bobbing and weaving," says Kobo's president and chief executive officer Michael*Tamblyn.

...

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[Nate the great]

That's a stupid question.

"because Kobo started as a shoestring project in a closet at Indigo" is the answer.

Also, B&N.

And Apple.

And Kindle had yet to go international, which meant Indigo had a shot of locking up its home market under the auspices of a protectionist govt.

[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.

[Ksquared]

As a U.S. Kobo user, I bought my Kobo WiFi because Borders was going out of business and it was deeply discounted. I had seen but never used a Kindle.

Once I got the Kobo, I loved getting books from my local library, which Kindle could not do at that time.

I wish Kobo had a retail presence in the USA, but I understand that it would be expensive to compete in this market, and difficult to take market share.

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by Ksquared

As a U.S. Kobo user, I bought my Kobo WiFi because Borders was going out of business and it was deeply discounted. I had seen but never used a Kindle.

Once I got the Kobo, I loved getting books from my local library, which Kindle could not do at that time.

I wish Kobo had a retail presence in the USA, but I understand that it would be expensive to compete in this market, and difficult to take market share.

I bought my Kobo at Sears when they were cheaper than Kindles.

[bgalbrecht]

I bought my Kobo online (maybe even at Amazon!) when I realized that B&N was never going to build another ereader that was better than the Nook Simple Touch. Unfortunately, it appears that Kobo is heading down the same non-expandable ereader path that Amazon and B&N did. 4-8GB is just not enough for the outliers like me with large collections or a lot of graphic novels, anime and comic books.

[pwalker8]

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.

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.

[barryem]

What I'd like to see is Amazon focusing more on ebooks and less on devices and allowing other makers to support their ebooks and downloads. Then we could have a lot more choices in device. As it is now there really isn't much competition at all.

Given that a lot of people read on phones I doubt this would make for huge competition in ereading devices but it would probably be a lot more than there is now.

Barry

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by bgalbrecht

I bought my Kobo online (maybe even at Amazon!) when I realized that B&N was never going to build another ereader that was better than the Nook Simple Touch.

The nook STR is CRAP. I own one. The UI is garbage and the partitioned storage is really stupid. And the buttons are hard to press.

[JSWolf]

Kobo has better hardware and firmware than Amazon. Plus, Kobo blows Amazon away in terms of device support. Kobo still supports third generation hardware with current firmware. Amazon does not. The Kindle Touch (4th gen hardware) is lacking a lot of features (for example).

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Kobo has better hardware and firmware than Amazon. Plus, Kobo blows Amazon away in terms of device support. Kobo still supports third generation hardware with current firmware. Amazon does not. The Kindle Touch (4th gen hardware) is lacking a lot of features (for example).

So why doesn't Rakuten bother to promote those facts?
Kobo doesn't even have one tiny link on the Rakuten USA home page.
As I said,they rely on people like you doing their job for them.

Their core business model worldwide relies on local partners, usually pbook retailers, promoting their hardware and ebook store, in return for a (smallish?) slice of ebook sales revenue. (And, on occasion, taking in customers from failed ebookstores like Sony. Though it's hard to tell there if Sony paid Kobo or Kobo paid Sony. The former is just as likely.)

Let's face it, Kobo's presence (outside its protectionist home) is strongest in markets where ebook adoption is weak (consisting primarly of passionate hobbyists) and it is weakest in the more mature markets where ebooks have exploded into the mainstream. Their mindshare among regular readers is minimal and they do nothing to reach to them.

Their approach does little to expand ebook adoption as it relies on retailers with a vested interest in keeping ebooks a marginal techie/hobbyist market. Best example is their Indie bookstore effort in the US that fizzled, as reported at Nate's site a couple years back. Indie stores that carried Kobo weren't listed, stores were listed that didn't, and in most cases the stores would grudgingly dig up a dusty hidden Kobo only if you asked.

Whatever their reasons, their approach to the US (and UK?) markets contrasts with other hardware players that actually *tried* to work their way into the US market before it was closed off by the Nook-initiated move to near-cost hardware pricing. Sony failed but they really tried. They even tried TV ads. Pocketbook had local distributors and pretty good US-based customer service. Even the likes of Cool-er gave it a good try during the boom years of 2011-12.

If Kobo is small in the US it is because their active efforts have *always* been small. Small efforts, small results.

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by barryem

What I'd like to see is Amazon focusing more on ebooks and less on devices and allowing other makers to support their ebooks and downloads. Then we could have a lot more choices in device. As it is now there really isn't much competition at all.

Given that a lot of people read on phones I doubt this would make for huge competition in ereading devices but it would probably be a lot more than there is now.

Barry

What sort things would you expect from Amazon focusing on ebooks rather than devices?

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by barryem

What I'd like to see is Amazon focusing more on ebooks and less on devices and allowing other makers to support their ebooks and downloads. Then we could have a lot more choices in device. As it is now there really isn't much competition at all.

I disagree. Kindle books can already be read on all of the major device platforms: Android, iOS, Windows, and Mac. That includes e-ink Android devices. I believe that Amazon currently puts more effort into supporting those platforms than into their own e-ink Kindles.

Most of the devices that they don't support are from their direct competitors who have their own e-book stores. And I'll bet Amazon would love to have their app available on those devices.

Reading Kindle books without using software supplied by Amazon is likely to continue to be difficult. Besides the obvious marketing advantage, they have a need to maintain DRM protection and also to obtain reading statistics for services like Kindle Unlimited. I doubt that will change.

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by jhowell

I disagree. Kindle books can already be read on all of the major device platforms: Android, iOS, Windows, and Mac. That includes e-ink Android devices. I believe that Amazon currently puts more effort into supporting those platforms than into their own e-ink Kindles.

Most of the devices that they don't support are from their direct competitors who have their own e-book stores. And I'll bet Amazon would love to have their app available on those devices.

Reading Kindle books without using software supplied by Amazon is likely to continue to be difficult. Besides the obvious marketing advantage, they have a need to maintain DRM protection and also to obtain reading statistics for services like Kindle Unlimited. I doubt that will change.

Not all Amazon books have DRM.

Now my opinion is the reason for Kindle-only software has more to do with tech support.
I don't mean tech support as in what we would require, but the small stuff like I bought an ebook now where is it. If they have all the person's information in front of them, it makes it easier.

[ottdmk]

Originally Posted by Nate the great

And Kindle had yet to go international, which meant Indigo had a shot of locking up its home market under the auspices of a protectionist govt.

To my knowledge, there's no protectionist measures here that helped Kobo. Their dominance in the Canadian market happened mainly because Kindle hadn't gone international, as you said. But there was nothing stopping Amazon from selling here except perhaps for the fact they hadn't lined up their WhisperSync partners yet.

And when Amazon did start selling the Kindle here, Kobo was helped out by the fact that Canada is a secondary market for Amazon.