# Kobo bought by Rakuten



## davidhburton

Interesting.

http://www.engadget.com/2011/11/08/rakuten-signs-agreement-to-purchase-kobo/


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## matt youngmark

I've been thinking that Kobo was ripe for purchase by some big conglomerate looking to get a piece of the exploding ebook pie (mmm, exploding pie). Of course, I know absolutely nothing about Rakuten, but if they strengthen Kobo's position in ebooks, I say hooray. Competition is good for everyone.


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## Terrence OBrien

Sounds like Rakuten isn't going to quietly let Amazon have the Japanese eBook market.


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## davidhburton

I hope this will help Kobo. I like them and they're easy to work with.


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## Randy Kadish

I was trying out a Kobo reader. I really liked it. Who knows: it might be my next one.

Randy


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## 41419

Thanks for sharing this news. I think it's huge and blogged about it today.

Make no mistake, Kobo is now a serious player. I took a look at what this means for the international market and for self-publishers, and why foreign markets are much bigger than they look.


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## davidhburton

Great post, David...as always!


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## Terrence OBrien

If we want to compare private GDP per capita, simply take GDP per capita and reduce it by the percentage of GDP taken up by government expenditure. It will have huge variations on a country by country basis since different countries have different mixes of government expenditures.


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## edwardgtalbot

Terrence OBrien said:


> If we want to compare private GDP per capita, simply take GDP per capita and reduce it by the percentage of GDP taken up by government expenditure. It will have huge variations on a country by country basis since different countries have different mixes of government expenditures.


I'm not certain comparing private GDP per capita would achieve the desired result, either. Since government expenditure often winds up being "income," it is fungible enough that discounting it would merely skew things in a different direction than including it does.

Trying to quantify to a level of specificity that would involve accounting for expenditures on something like prisoners isn't particularly useful in this case. I do understand that economists and accountants create models to attempt exactly that, and there are certainly places where it can be valuable. In this situation, though, it should be enough that there are quite a few reasons to believe that the potential for international sales is larger than most of the existing hard data would suggest.


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## Paul Clayton

I'm heartened that everyone thinks this is a good thing.  Now let's hope they (Rakuten) take over Diesel as well. They need a good tune up!


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## Terrence OBrien

_"I'm not certain comparing private GDP per capita would achieve the desired result, either. Since government expenditure often winds up being "income," it is fungible enough that discounting it would merely skew things in a different direction than including it does."_

About the last thing I want to do is get into a discussion about computing national income. It is normally divided into total, government, and private, and the feedback loops are considered. Any further detail gets way, way down the rabbit hole. Many have never returned. It's gross indicator, and is quite useful in making high level comparisons. But singling out any specific government spending category does't tell us much.

I wonder if the market for eBooks will become divided up into large language categories, with different companies dominating different groups.


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## 41419

@Terence

I really thought twice about mentioning GDP at all in that article. It is indeed a rabbit hole, a Pandora's box, a tin of worms, and the Bermuda Triangle rolled into one.

My point was that people tend to generalize about developing countries and about international markets, and conclude that there is little potential there by using crude barometers (such as GDP). I remember people saying the same thing about cell phones some time back when an Irish businessman set up carriers all over the Carribean. People said that they were too expensive, just middle class toys, and that poorer countries won't be able to afford them. Well, cell phones are everywhere and he's rolling in it now.

Regarding language groups - that's interesting, and possible, but I think the split is more likely to be regional. I could see it playing out where Amazon are very strong in North America and Europe, a competitor (possibly Kobo) is stronger in Asia, and a further company nails down somewhere like South America (Telefonica is a candidate here). Each region presents its own challenges and not all of them play to Amazon's strengths.

Alternatively, as you suggest, each major language group could be split amongst the big boys, with a local player taking a significant bite in each country. I could see that happening too.


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## jimkukral

Interesting indeed. Another company that the own is Linkshare, one of the biggest affiliate networks out there. They certainly are diversifying. I can see many possibilities.


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## Terrence OBrien

_"Alternatively, as you suggest, each major language group could be split amongst the big boys, with a local player taking a significant bite in each country. I could see that happening too."_

Cheap readers with low memory that rely on cloud storage might work similarly to those cell phones.

The language groups seem to follow large cultural groups. I'd be interested in any indications that different cultural groups gravitate to different types of search and selection systems. I don't know. Perhaps what Amazon has is tuned to Western cultural groups, but wouldn't be optimal for East Asian groups. The existing Rakuten systems might give an indication. Anyone familiar with the consumer experience of both Rakuten and Amazon?


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## Victoria J

This is interesting news. I almost bought a Kobo.


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## tim290280

Randy Kadish said:


> I was trying out a Kobo reader. I really liked it. Who knows: it might be my next one.
> 
> Randy


It used to be such a huge gap between the Kindle and the rest of the ereaders. But now, the Kobo, Nook, Kindle and a couple of the independent readers (Sony, etc) are all pretty comparable. The touch versions of the Kobo, Nook and Kindle are all roughly the same and you could be happy with any of them. It really comes down to the store behind them. Kobo picking up Japan would be great for their competitiveness.


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## gkweir

I've used a Kobo almost exclusively for a while now. It's an excellent device, very easy to use, and buying content is a snap. I am, however, tempted to try the new Kindle.


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## Will Write for Gruel

tim290280 said:


> It used to be such a huge gap between the Kindle and the rest of the ereaders. But now, the Kobo, Nook, Kindle and a couple of the independent readers (Sony, etc) are all pretty comparable. The touch versions of the Kobo, Nook and Kindle are all roughly the same and you could be happy with any of them. It really comes down to the store behind them. Kobo picking up Japan would be great for their competitiveness.


And the store behind them often doesn't matter if you know how to use Calibre and sideload.

I wish Amazon offered epub. And I wish there was a third-party service that let me buy and store my epub books in the cloud, and then sync to any device that reads epub.


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## seanersky001

Asher MacDonald said:


> And the store behind them often doesn't matter if you know how to use Calibre and sideload.
> 
> I wish Amazon offered epub. And I wish there was a third-party service that let me buy and store my epub books in the cloud, and then sync to any device that reads epub.


thx


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## Grimmy

I love my Kobo ereader, it is an excellent device. I'm pleased that this news could mean they really start to be competitive in the ebook industry!


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## BenRoach

This is great news for Kobo and the whole industry.

Amazon obviously rules in America, but Kobo has a huge chance for international.

The more competition for Amazon, I think the better it is for book buyers and authors.

I love Kobo's device, format and their attitude all round.

This is good.


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