The development trend of the electronic book subscription service market

Absrtact: The New York Times online edition recently wrote an analysis of the development trend of the E-book subscription service market. The article points out that the current global E-book subscription service market presents the oyster, Scribd and Amazon Kindle unlimited pillars trend. Although three service

The Internet edition of The New York Times recently published an analysis of the trend of the book subscription service market. The article points out that the current global E-book subscription service market presents the oyster, Scribd and Amazon Kindle Unlimited pillars trend. Although the three services each have advantages, but if their respective existing problems continue to be resolved, then the traditional way of borrowing is still the best choice for consumers.

The following is the full text of the article:

Packaged subscriptions seem to have become the exclusive service model of the Internet. With this model, Netflix provides a huge amount of television and film content for its users, while Spotify also has a decent performance in music content. Users only pay a small monthly service charge to get enough TV sets or music content. This is a business model that is convenient and receptive to users.

The E-book market can of course introduce this packaged subscription model, and several internet companies are also trying to launch a 10 dollar or even lower packaged subscription service each month, giving users access to their ebook databases at once. Among them oyster, Scribd and Amazon Kindle Unlimited have become the leader in this field.

This subscription model looks very appealing on the surface. For those who can read only two or three e-books a month, the cost savings are not obvious. But for users who read a lot every month, they can save a significant portion of their spending.

However, the drawbacks of this model are also clear: although each company can provide hundreds of thousands of of E-book catalogs, many new books are not within subscription services. This is because the subscription service does not sign a cooperation agreement with a number of large publishers, especially the electronic Copyright licensing agreement for new books. So unless you're a "bookworm" who doesn't mind reading old books, you may not subscribe to this service.

Kindle Unlimited has obvious advantages

Amazon Kindle Unlimited is currently the latest E-book subscription service in the market and one of the most promising. Users can download up to 600,000 e-books per month with just 10 dollars. One of the most important differences between the Kindle Unlimited and other subscription services is that the service is compatible with Amazon's Kindle E-book reader. E-books on Oyster and Scribd can only be shown on Apple iOS and Google (Weibo) Android tablets and smartphones, which means users will have to extend their reading time for the glare of the screen.

Amazon, of course, has launched a Kindle app for iOS, Android, Windows phone and BlackBerry systems that allow users to read e-books from the Kindle Unlimited with the Kindle app, PC and Apple Macintosh computer users can also read the Kindle Unlimited ebook. But the ability to use a professional Kindle to read e-books makes the Kindle Unlimited the competition.

Some of the electronic books offered by the Kindle Unlimited also include a voice version, as well as a reading book and a voice version of the sync feature. With this feature, users can use reading mode at home, and then continue to listen to the voice version on their way out or driving to work. This is the oyster and Scribd are lack of convenient functions. According to Amazon's website, about 7800 Kindle Unlimited e-books have two versions of reading and voice.

Defects remain

However, the friction between Amazon and publishers has become a big drag on the development of the Kindle Unlimited service. So far, HarperCollins, Penguin Random House, MacMillan, Hachetter and Simon & Schuster, the world's top five publishing companies, have not reached an agreement with Amazon. As a result, the Kindle Unlimited cannot provide many popular books.

Of course, there are also a few popular e-books on the Kindle Unlimited, such as the 21st century capital, written by Thomas Piketty, a French economist, and published by Belknap Press, a Harvard press, in Toma Pikti The Twenty-first Century) and a complete series of "Harry Potter" books published by Scholastic Press.

But for book-obsessed books, E-book subscriptions are as good as they can be. The Kindle Unlimited offers 150 classic E-books, but users will have to pay 99 cents extra for Shakespeare's storm. This is enough to prove that many of the classic e-books offered by the Kindle Unlimited are free, but occasionally with a portion of the extra charge of one to two dollars. Therefore, the user must increase the amount of reading to make the subscription service become more and more value.

In addition, many Amazon users have access to the Kindle Library (lending) by subscribing to the Prime service. Prime's annual fee is 100 USD, subscribers can enjoy the free shipping service provided by Amazon. Prime subscribers who own the Kindle E-book reader can also borrow a book for free every month from 500,000 of E-books. As a result, they seem to have no reason to subscribe to the Kindle Unlimited service. In addition, the Kindle Unlimited's user interface is the most vexing of the three services currently in service. Users are even harder to find the home page of the Kindle Unlimited, and often browse through the entire Kindle ebook catalogue during the search for free e-books.

Oyster design is the most intimate

In these three E-book subscription services, oyster design is the most intimate. It has a minimalist user interface that highlights big cover pictures and promotions such as "summer blockbuster" and "Oprah Grant" (Oprah: American television presenter and actress).

Oyster and Scribd are not as many as Kindle Unlimited in terms of e-book numbers, but they have the support of large publishing companies such as Simon & Schuster and HarperCollins. The publishers have licensed the electronic rights of their old books to oyster and Scribd.

"This is a good way to enrich the choices of consumers," HarperCollins's chief digital officer Chantal Restivo Alesi (Chantal Restivo-alessi) said. Especially in the choice of outdated e-books, you may be particularly fond of an author or a particular genre, so that you can use other channels to purchase the forthcoming ebook. ”

But the oyster also has the flaw, but the search result matching question is particularly prominent. For example, if you search the New York Times bestseller, Cut and Thrust, written by Stuart Woods, Oyster will give you a search result of four or five pornographic books. But since Oyster also launched the children's book section, which is provided by Disney's publishing department, the app may integrate some parental controls.

In addition, Oyster's social function is somewhat overbearing. Once you subscribe to the 10-dollar service, users are asked to share their Facebook accounts, create a personal database with images on oyster, and invite friends to join Oyster. Admittedly, this is a lot of the usual routines, but it's a bit too cumbersome for a reader who wants to enjoy quiet and private reading time.

Scribd support for itunes payment

The SCRIBD subscription process is simple and also supports the itunes account payment. Scribd's user interface is not as eye-catching as Oyster's, its cover picture is smaller, and the interface buffering speed is sometimes slow. Scribd's monthly subscription fee, however, is 9 dollars, 1 lower than the Kindle Unlimited and oyster.

Scribd was initially just a file-sharing service, and it still supports users uploading papers, books, recipes, presentation reports, and other types of paperwork. This allows scribd to accumulate a lot of interesting content, such as maps, instruction manuals and even legal documents.

In an on-demand digital media market, E-book subscription services seem to be a logical evolutionary direction. However, the potential of E-book subscription services has yet to be tapped. In short, the above three subscription services have a space for ascension. While consumers may already be ready to subscribe to E-book services, publishers seem to have been unable to accept them.

Unless the above issues are properly addressed, a Kindle reader, an Amazon Prime membership and a library card are still the best choice for consumers. (Jing)