The Acquisition
Thursday afternoon saw an announcement that had the tech community sit up and take notice. Amazon, the online retail giant and Goodreads.com, one of the most popular social networks for book lovers (readers and authors alike) got together yesterday to announce the acquisition of Goodreads by Amazon. The amount remains undisclosed as of now; however, people have started speculating the future of this business acquisition, of Goodreads.com and its huge community along with the implications for Amazon Kindle eBook reader.
Russ Grandinetti, the Amazon VP (Kindle content) through his statement said, “Amazon and Goodreads share a passion for reinventing reading. Goodreads has helped change how we discover and discuss books and, with Kindle, Amazon has helped expand reading around the world. In addition, both Amazon and Goodreads have helped thousands of authors reach a wider audience and make a better living at their craft. Together we intend to build many new ways to delight readers and authors alike.” The Goodreads co-founder and CEO, Otis Chandler also shared his views on the acquisition and the immense opportunity it provides Goodreads for reaching out to international audiences/book lovers on a large scale with the help of Amazon.
This news is also of great importance for the mobile world as today, we find more and more people reading articles, stories, news, and even books on their SmartPhones, tablet PCs, and eBook readers. And Amazon Kindle e-reader is among the most preferred devices for reading articles, books, information and news in the digital form.
Impact on Goodreads
According to Goodreads Co-Founder and CEO Otis Chandler has stated in his blog that the primary offering of Goodreads will stay as it is and it will continue to function as an independent entity. Started in 2007, Goodreads has established itself as a vibrant community of book lovers who share their views on books they are reading, their bookshelves, to-read-books list, and recommendations as well.
This acquisition will help Goodreads gain more book readers into its community. Goodreads, over the last seven years, has managed to develop some amazing mobile apps that have proved pivotal in its growth as an online community of book lovers. It has worked very hard to make the social network mobile and user-friendly. The Goodreads iPhone app (iOS app) and Goodreads Android app are particularly popular among the users. It remains to be seen whether Amazon will allow Goodreads app for non-Amazon mobile devices and eBook readers.
Impact on Amazon
Goodreads, today, has more than 16 million users, more than 30, 000 book clubs and over 23 million book reviews across its huge community. With the acquisition, Amazon finds itself in a terrific position to integrate the Goodreads experience into its Kindle eBook reader and Kindle tablet offering and leverage the social community feature of Goodreads to gain upon its rivals like Apple and Samsung. Although the details of the deal are yet to be unknown, it is been assumed that Kindle will access to the huge online community base of Goodreads, which is a good thing for Amazon Kindle, which is keen to ascertain its position as the most popular e-reader globally.
Amazon will also gain from Goodreads’ recommendation process that helps it provide better targeted recommendations to the users. The acquisition is expected to close before mid-year, 2013.
Final Word
This acquisition is really going to heat up the competition in the eBook reader and tablet PC market. Also, we think that this development will give a boost to online publishing (e-publishing). We are particularly excited with the prospects it holds for the world of mobile app development. With the online world getting increasingly mobile and social at the same time, the scene is just right for mobile applications that will address the need of e-publishers, e-readers, and people who are looking for related information.
So, to answer the question – yes, we feel reading as a hobby is on its way to becoming a more social experience.
