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Kobo CEO Says Not Selling Washing Machines Key To Overtaking Amazon
DavidGilbert99 writes "Kobo, the Canadian-based ebook company is number two in the market, behind the behemoth that is Amazon. So what does the CEO Michael Serbinis think is the one thing which will allow them to overtake the e-commerce giant? 'We don't sell any washing machines, we don't sell radios. We are not focused on the next server farm to offer data services. It is a question of focus.' Serbinis goes on to tell IBTimes UK: 'From an organization standpoint at Kobo, this is all we do. Everyone at Kobo, all we focus on is creating a great experience for book-lovers.'"
Doesn't mean you'll be the best at it.
Come on, how hard is it to not implement DRM?
I won't even seriously consider them until I can read their books on my tablet and phone. I was an early adopter of eBooks, buying my first Rocket eBook reader back around 1998, so I don't have anything against dedicated devices, but there's no longer any need, and I already carry a phone and a tablet which both work great as eBook readers... and with all three of the eBook reader apps I use I can even bounce back and forth between devices, reading on my tablet when it's handy or on my phone when the tablet isn't nearby.
Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
Maybe because they're Canadian, I found that Kobo was the only e-book reader was the only one that provided a decent, free, French dictionary. As a native English speaker reading books in French, this is a great feature. I also really like Kobo's interface. Will they be "the best"? I don't know... that's such an American obsession. Maybe they'll just be really good.
I doubt it.
Kobo Inc is owned Rakuten...who are Rakuten you may ask. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rakuten Among its numerous online properties, its flagship B2B2C e-commerce platform Rakuten Ichiba is the largest e-commerce site in Japan and among the world’s largest by sales...in case you were wondering.
Because I know you want to know http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=ja&tl=en&u=rakuten.co.jp this is the washing machines they sell.
That's why after i bought my first (and last) Kobo, it lasted exactly one year, not a day more, not a day less. Keep going Kobo, but without me.
So said the buggy whip manufactures around the turn of the century.
You say things that offend me and I can deal with it. Can you?
The problem is that they don't sell washing machines.
Amazon make enough profit in other areas of their business (eg: advertising) that they don't need to make a profit selling eBooks.
They have shared infrastructure that lowers the cost of providing their eBook service.
Even if they make a loss selling eBooks, they'll still make money from additional customers hitting their ads.
Kobo must make enough profit to pay for everything - hosting, development, HR, CEO bonuses - from selling eBooks and eBooks only. Their product is going to cost more or they will make less or even lose money.
is this a post or an ad?
I now start at Amazon for pretty much all my shopping. And I buy a LOT of stuff from them. I think they have a totally correct focus.
Guns don't kill people -- people kill people.
But the guns seem to help a bit. (apologies to Eddie Izzard)
I don't know why I am just now seeing it. I've always disliked the name and thought it was meaningless. But then I just realized it's "booK" with the letters all mixed up.
Sure, a touch-screen is nicer than a 4-way pad for selecting menu items, but I bought an e-reader to read books, not navigate menus. This is also my beef with the Kindle Touch/Paperwhite/whatever the non low-end models are called now. The basic bog-standard kindle, I can pick it up and hold it while reading without worrying if I'm about to accidentally turn a page, change the font size, exit my book, etc.
I did briefly own Kobo's lower end model for about 2 days before returning it. That one did have buttons, but you also had to go and make a cup of tea between every page turn. Kobo no longer even sell that model, or any others with page-turn buttons.
Hmmm... and it is working for them to beat Amazon.
It's all well and good to be a one product company that does one thing really well. The truth is, you need to work with a lot of different organizations if you are in the E-reader business. And E-readers are no more end goals than Phones.
This is where the size of Amazon plays a big role. Sure, they sell other stuff. But they sell books (dead-tree versions). And music. And movies. And they can sit down with publishers and set terms, sign up authors, make money off advertising, and do a lot of other things that support their products. I bought a Kindle DX, and the lending library program is one of the big plus points for me. And I joined their Prime program, which gets me access to other digital content. These incentives keep me going back to Amazon. If I like one of the books I loan out, I buy it.
An e-reader is a device. It isn't a goal in itself. The content is the goal. The iPhone needed a carrier - just selling an unlocked phone for $600 wouldn't have helped Apple (not to start a flamewar, use any phone you want in this example) - they needed a carrier's backing to take off. So claiming you make a great e-reader isn't worth much unless you have the infrastructure to support it - THIS infrastructure is what Amazon can afford to buy because they sell washing machines.
Isn't IBTimes widely regarded as one of the slimiest sites around. Notice that, if you try to stop the auto play video it will wait a minute or two and then auto resume.
I know there's another site, can't remember the name, that let's you subscribe to all the ebooks you can read. If I were Kobo, I'd work something similar out. I'd give my ereaders free or severely discounted access to an online repo of ebooks "for rent". Also, make the damn things bigger.
If they're going to say they're specializing, then they have to be the best in town.
PS: I don't reply to ACs.
I like how the journalist blindly accepts their claim to being the #2 e-reader, completely ignoring Google (aka Play bookstore), Apple, or B&N. This smells like a CEO blowing smoke in the hopes of unloading a money-losing business on somebody else.
Forget the android app, how about Linux access?
A week or two back, after seeing the Iain Banks announcement on Slashdot, I decided it was time to buy "The Hydrogen Sonata" and went to the Kobo store to get it. I don't have Windows or Mac in the house, and use Calibre to talk to my Kobo.
I knew it would have DRM, but figured that Linux didn't have to understand it, as long as the Kobo could. But the Kobo store wouldn't even permit me to download any sort of file at all - it would ONLY work through an Adobe Digital Editions plug-in. Looking on WineHQ the current version of A.D.E. doesn't run on WINE.
Happily Kobo refunded my money, though it took a little doing. I'd rather they sell me a file that can be read on my Kobo, even if not on Linux. It would have seemed to me that the Kobo would generally appeal to the same type of people who prefer the politics of Linux - but they've cut me out of their store.
The living have better things to do than to continue hating the dead.
'We don't sell any washing machines, we don't sell radios. We are not focused on the next server farm to offer data services. It is a question of focus.'
Kobo's CEO may think that he's the only one doing the focusing and he's implying that Amazon has lost focus ...
Well, he might have a point ... but then, he's not entirely right either
You see, Amazon may have branched out to non-book categories, but that does not mean they have lost focus
What happens is that Amazon has shifted their focus onto something else
It's all about business viewpoints
Amazon started out carving out a niche market --- selling books online --- but when that niche market is filled with competitors, such as Kobo, it's no longer a niche market
If you're the first one who came out with the instant noodles, you got the whole market to yourself
Even if you restrict yourself in selling instant noodle that came with only ONE FLAVOR, the customers will have no choice to buy instant noodle of that particular flavor
But when you start to have competitors that came into the market selling noodles with more exciting flavors, what do you do?
You can either fight back, selling instant noodles with even more choices of flavor ...
You can fight back with pricepoint --- lowering the price of your instant noodles ...
Or ... you can shift your focus away from instant noodles, into something else
As a business person myself I keep on reminding myself to be extremely flexible and agile in dealing with the marketplace
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
Kobo is part of Rakuten, previously known as Buy.com. They're no different than Amazon.com.
um...never heard of Kobo until now. #2, yeah right.
Can't find the quotation, but early on he was very clear on Amazon having focussed on books, for what seemed like very good reasons. As I recall, the point was that there were humongous numbers of titles--far more than any physical bookstore could stock; there was a well-structured database of them--Bowker's Books In Print; shipping size and weights were manageable; and there were straightforward and fairly speedy mechanisms to get any book in print from any publisher--you or I might have trouble ordering directly from a publisher, but a modest-sized business like a bookstore or like Amazon did not.
As I recall, he said that it was much more suitable business than CDs, I think because the number of books in print was far higher than the number of CDs "in print."
He gave what SEEMED like a very convincing case for books being uniquely suited to Internet commerce. I remember being very surprised when they branched out into consumer goods.
"How to Do Nothing," kids activities, back in print!
I bought a Kobo eReader because I wanted to support my local bookstore and didn't want to support Amazon or Barnes and Noble. I think that their eReader is clearly third best (behind Kindle and Nook) but I'm willing to ignore that because they do have an Android app. However, Kobo uses the Adobe DRM which seems to guarantee that your library will become obsolete (maybe unreadable) in a few years. Adobe allows you to register as many as six machines (computers or eReaders) on your account and you can read your eBooks on any of these machines. If you buy a new eReader or tablet every year it will only take a few years to reach this limit. At that time you won't be able to transfer your library to a new machine. Adobe's literature implies you can deregister a machine but as nearly as I can tell doesn't actually tell you how to do it. I tried the obvious google search and found an answer (but not from Adobe). It doesn't work on my system (Windows 7/64 bit and Galaxy Note 10.1). The method also won't work if the machine you want to deregister is lost or dead. Finally, there doesn't seem to be a way to see the list of machines Adobe thinks you've registered. Thus, there is no way to tell if their list is the same as yours. (I did find a post by someone who thought he had accidentally registered the same machine several times.) Finally, what happens when Adobe decides to stop supporting its DRM or Kobo goes bankrupt? (An even bigger problem for the Nook.) I spend too much money on books to allow my library to become obsolete in a few years. I really want Kobo to succeed, but it has to be nearly as good as Amazon. I don't think it's close.
So it may be still based in Toronto but it's no longer Canadian.
Of course Kobo is #2. My daughter just make a huge Kobo in her diaper...
They're #2 worldwide overall, although a lot of people don't realize it because they've had nothing but trouble trying to crack into the US market where they've been a distant also-ran from the get-go.
Um unless there hardware has changed drastically they sold me the worst ebook reader I ever had. Couple that with DRM, a loading at that byzantine and no droid reader app. How about selling something that people actually want is the way to beat amazon? For physical goods prime is hard to beat.
No sir I dont like it.
Yes kobo is so great you cant even search for a word or phrase in a book. So awesome.
When Amazon started out, big-box stores became a showroom: people would look at that new TV, and go buy it on Amazon.
Now, I go to Amazon to check reviews, but do most of my shopping on specialized vendors like Newegg or B&H Photo & Video. The specialized stores tend to have slightly better prices, or better selections, or better recommendations. Amazon is now my showroom for the rest of the Internet.
This is Amazon's own fault. The wife was looking for a ebook reading a long time ago, and the only realistic option was the Sony (the others were el-cheapo "Aluratek" and the like). Because Kindle and Nook were NOT AVAILABLE in Canada. And even when it was, you were importing it from Amazon US - no way to get it straight from Amazon.ca
So Kobo jumped right in the big hole Amazon and B&N left by not offering their products in the Canadian market. People started buying Kobo's, showing it to their friends, who also got Kobos.
And now Kobo is HUGE in Canada.
When the copyright term is "forever minus a day", live every day like it's the last.
Nice information thank you ...best of luck
I ended up getting an ten inch onyx boox for PDF files. Turned to landscape with PDF files set to fit width (or point to point to cut off margins) it's pretty good. I've still got a Kobo touch which is better for epub novels. I recently stopped reading a hardback and finished it on the Kobo instead since I can bump up the font size to put it on the table and read while eating. The only downside is some books with illustrations (eg. Simon Winchester's "Atlantic") don't have them in the kobo version.
That's why I check Amazon for the reviews and then go buy it in a store.
...and does, indeed, not mean you will be the best at it, focus still is the best way to becoming the best at it. This company has a CEO with common sense. My business is what they get.
Religous speak to God. Insane are spoken to by God. When all shut up, one can finally hear Shostakovich in peace
If you are in the market for an ereader, I implore you to search for kobo horror stories, my favorite is over on getsatisfaction.com. Typically, a user has a problem with their kobo (very common). They contact customer support, who are friendly and completely worthless. Customer support tells the customer they are escalating their ticket to level 2 support. Wait. Wait more. Complain. Wait more. Complain more. Repeat until fed up. Stay away from Kobo. I am waiting for the day they oust their worthless CEO or go out of business.
There is no way a company only selling books will ever overtake a company selling EVERYTHING else including books. Leading eBook sales in Canada is not an indication of future success worldwide, and thats only because Amazon has only started offering Canadians the same services as Americans.
Also lousy antiquated ports of Android on their devices is not going to be a win for Kobo.
And not sure Kobo is going to make any headway against Amazon in big data. Kobo doesn't have the deep pockets simply because they DON'T sell washing machines and everything else.
Finally, how is Amazon not delivering an exceptional eBook store as well as selling other consumer goods?. Last I checked the whole Kobo experience, from the tablet to their online services to the quality and amount of content, is subpar to everything Amazon does, even in Canada.
I haven't thought of anything clever to put here, but then again most of you haven't either.
You're embarassing yourself Jeremiah Cornelius http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=3581857&cid=43276741 since you posted that using your registered username by mistake (instead of your usual anonymous coward submissions by the 100's the past 2-3 months now on slashdot) giving away it's you spamming this forums almost constantly, just as you have in the post I just replied to.
When Amazon starts offering free washing machines with the purchase of a Kindle, boy are they going to feel stupid!
You can also be overspecialized.
Amazon is a big fat store. They sell stuff. It can be electronic or physical. This is handy when what you want is in one format but not the other.
If you choose to ignore a large portion of the relevant product (namely books), then you are at a disadvantage to those that aren't so narrowly focused.
Doesn't matter if it's Books, Video, or Music. Chances are that Amazon has it in one format or another.
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
Amazon will eliminate your book reviews if you also happen to be an author, or if their algorithms determine you have any connection to said author, or sometimes randomly, out of sheer algorithmic butthurt. So rather than start your word-of-mouth marketing with friends and supporters, it pays to buy reviews from India or wherever.
Bad ebooks are often publisher!fail moreso than Amazon!fail. Especially digitized versions of older editions--those are frequently scans of print archived copies, or files that were taken by an unpaid intern and run through macros to get them out there quick before the authors asked for the digital rights back due to out-of-print-ness. A bad ebook for sale negates the oop clause in a lot of legacy contracts, often preventing the author from releasing a better, more updated version of his or her backlist.
Also, Amazon uses the .mobi format where Kobo uses .epub - there are more validation checks and standardization in the epub process than in the mobi.
Kobo has made a big push internationally where other companies aren't really doing much e-book business.