Rakuten Buys OverDrive

[Lynx-lynx]

My library in Aus uses the Overdrive system, so what does the Rakuten buyout mean for us? And countries using Overdrive other than the US?

And Amazon sucks here, just soo glad we don't have to rely solely on them for anything!! (Or solely on anyone else for that matter - remember geo unblocking is okay here)

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by DNSB

Yes, I did note the "entirely". Personally, my feeling is that Apprentice Alf and Calibre make that "entirely" hard to accept at this time.

Since these are library books, you can't do format shifting.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by DNSB

Yes, I did note the "entirely". Personally, my feeling is that Apprentice Alf and Calibre make that "entirely" hard to accept at this time.

If you DeDRM your library loans you are a dirty thief.

Not to mention that the majority of ebooks are read on non-eInk readers -- Android, iOS and Windows tablets are pretty much agnostic when it comes to ebook format and tablets of whatever flavour are the reading platform for the vast majority (last numbers I saw was that eInk ereaders were about 9% of the ereading market).

And why does that even have the slightest marginal anything to do with people who read on Kindles?

OTOH, I have a tendency to believe in profit being the motive driving most corporations. If Overdrive was making a profit supplying Kindle format ebooks to libraries in the USA, I can't see Rakuten changing that without a compelling reason given the American ereader market is dominated by Amazon.

Because they might think (and there is no reason to think they would be wrong) that they will make more money by taking away one of the compelling attractions of a Kindle (direct library checkouts) and offering that as an exclusive Kobo advantage. Selling more Kobos makes them more money in the long run than selling library Kindlebooks.
They might one day actually try to make themselves known in the U.S....

OYAH, I find the tendency of denizens of the USA to believe they inhabit the center of the universe to be humourous. Recent example was a review of ereaders where 4 Amazon Kindle and 3 B&N Nook devices were the only entries in the eInk segment.

I'm sorry, where did I imply that the US is the center of the universe?

From my perspective, as a US Kindle owner, this is an ominous occurrence. I have every right to consider things as potentially bad insomuch as they might affect me that way.

You are more than welcome to consider anything you damn well want to be as good or bad as you like, I promise I won't stop you.

[SteveEisenberg]

The question in my mind, when I read the headline, was how Rakuten stands regarding freedom to read. But googling in search of cooperation with national censorship, I can't find problems.

If you go by the adversary-of-my-adversary-is-my-friend principle, it's a good sign that the Great Firewall of China blocks their home web site, rakuten.co.jp:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Website...mainland_China

[MGlitch]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

Not a good idea... this gives excellent incentive for them to link the two together and banish Amazon. Leaving we Kindle owners entirely out in the cold.

Actually the reasons you give are probably things they would consider to contribute to making this a great idea.

You might not like a theoretical outcome, which we've had no evidence to support save that a company that isn't Amazon bought a company that Amazon benefits from.

The only announced plans they have are bringing Overdrive to Kobo apps, and devices.

[FizzyWater]

Look, this is not to say that this sale automatically guarantees the destruction of library ebook borrowing or Amazon's Kindle, but we've seen this kind of thing before.

B&N didn't announce they planned to take Fictionwise/eReader's DRM scheme and then close the best ebook site previously known. Amazon didn't announce it tended to restrict the Mobipocket format to only Amazon devices and then close that site. It happens. Corporations have long term plans they don't announce to the world when they buy/takeover/merge with other companies.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by MGlitch

The only announced plans they have are bringing Overdrive to Kobo apps, and devices.

It will be good to have an ePub Reader that can once again check out library ePub direct from the device. That functionality was lost when Sony stopped making Readers. Kobo Readers will have that and that's a good thing.

[thewitt]

Originally Posted by SteveEisenberg

The question in my mind, when I read the headline, was how Rakuten stands regarding freedom to read. But googling in search of cooperation with national censorship, I can't find problems.

If you go by the adversary-of-my-adversary-is-my-friend principle, it's a good sign that the Great Firewall of China blocks their home web site, rakuten.co.jp:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Website...mainland_China

I'm not really sure what your point is here, but I have no problem getting to Rakuten.com from China. You do know it's a Japanese company, right? The Rakuten Group purchased Buy.com, Kobo and now OverDrive. They are the largest online retailer in Japan, and actually have a development office in Beijing. No actual retail presence in China yet but I believe it's because of their presence in Taiwan.

They are a very large, very powerful business now not only in Japan, but internationally. They were the first company in 50 years in Japan to be able to start up a new Baseball franchise. Might not sound like much, but this is a huge political accomplishment - not to mention financial expense.

They recently entered the eCommerce market in Malaysia, and are giving Alibaba a run for their money.

They have an online marketplace similar to Amazon where you can open your own storefront.

These guys are going to be around for a long time, and they move very, very quickly.

It will be interesting to see what they do with OverDrive and Kobo as the center of their eBook strategy.

I contacted them about putting my print books in their online catalog, and they have something in the works they will be announcing this year. Who knows if that will be another acquisition or if they will do something on their own, but they have expansion of print book sales as one of their targets for this year as well.

[PeterT]

Originally Posted by MGlitch

The only announced plans they have are bringing Overdrive to Kobo apps, and devices.

Could you cite where this tidbit came from?

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

Selling more Kobos makes them more money in the long run than selling library Kindlebooks.

.

That... might not be quite true.

Overdrive library pricing is quite high. Enough to draw in some deeper pocket competitors like 3M. And they *are* profitable, which Kobo hasn't been. (Possibly becsuse of their local retailer reliance/cost sharing, possibly because of their less-than-successful tablet venture.)

I think it is significant that they're paying more for Overdrive than they paid for Kobo, even back when ebook adoption was booming and Kobo still had hopes for big growth in the US/UK markets.

Also, there is more to Overdrive than library ebooks; they're a back-end ebook services provider like Bluefire and they have long been active in educational ebook efforts which is how they landed in the library business.

OverDrive, Inc. is an American digital distributor of eBooks, audiobooks, music, and video titles. The company provides secure management, digital rights management and download fulfillment services for publishers, libraries, schools, and retailers.[1] OverDrive's catalog includes more than 2 million digital titles from more than 5,000 publishers.[1] The company's global network includes more than 27,000 libraries and schools.[1] OverDrive was founded in 1986 and is located in Cleveland, Ohio.[1]

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/OverDrive,_Inc.

Rakuten's bread and butter is B2B retail *services* rather than consumer sales--that makes Overdrive a much better fit for them than Kobo, which is mostly a consumer play. This is reflected in the lack of Kobo integration in their portal websites.

OverDrive's download services include several software as a service products for libraries, retailers, schools, publishers and the military. Overdrive Marketplace, formerly known as Content Reserve, serves as a collection development portal.[21] Publishers upload their content to this marketplace and apply DRM settings for protected content. Libraries can then log in to Overdrive Marketplace and add content to their virtual branch website. Retailers can also use Overdrive Marketplace to supply their online stores. OverDrive's other web-based products for content protection and management include: Private Reserve, a private, online repository for rights-holders to upload, organize, protect and distribute their eBooks, documents and other digital material; MIDAS, a white-label e-retail solution that allows retailers to sell OverDrive-distributed media; and Adobe ADEPT, a hosted service for protecting files viewed with Adobe Digital Editions

OverDrive-distributed eBooks, audiobooks, music and video play in a proprietary media player called OverDrive Media Console, which is available for Windows and Mac platforms, as well as Android, Blackberry, iOS (iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch), and Windows Phone 7; on some devices, eBooks can also be downloaded and played in Adobe Digital Editions software. OverDrive also supports Kindle-format eBooks.

Libraries providing digital media titles to their users can be found through the Overdrive Search portal.

With its Next Generation enhancements, OverDrive offers OverDrive Read, a browser-based eReading experience; streaming audiobooks, which enable on-demand access to audiobooks via the OverDrive Media Console apps; OverDrive Media Station, a platform that lets patrons browse their library's digital collection on touchscreen monitors and public Internet workstations; Next Generation Content Reserve, a streamlined collection-development portal; and OverDrive APIs, which allow developers to integrate OverDrive content into apps and platforms.[5]

Kobo under Rakuten has shown limited growth and profitability, reflected in last year's appointment of a Rakuten internal turnaround specialist as Kobo CEO. Rakuten buying Overdrive *should* help Kobo but that would be mostly becsuse Kobo *needs* the help. Too much of Kobo's business model is about "we're not Amazon" which is of no use in competing with Apple, Google, Tolino, and other regional players.

Overdrive has a business that can both leverage Amazon's market as well as the other global players and as well as compete with them. They're no crusaders, they'll just go where the money is.

Edit: There are two things ebook related that Kobo does that Overdrive doesn't and that is hardware and Indie publishing. Although Overdrive has been reaching out to indies recently, through their Smashwords deal.

There is some potential for sibling rivalry in this deal. It'll be interesting to see how things play out.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

Not a good idea... this gives excellent incentive for them to link the two together and banish Amazon. Leaving we Kindle owners entirely out in the cold.

BTW, little need to fret there.

Overdrive is not without competitors in the library ebook business; if they were to choose to cut Amazon off, Amazon can always go to 3M or B&T and set up shop with them. And at that point, the question becomes: "How many libraries (already ticked at Overdrive pricing) jump ship to maintsin support to Kindle owners (and save money)."

Sure, they could hurt Kindle a bit.
But Kindles sold like hotcakes before they offered library support and Overdrive would suffer if 3M or B&T get a boost from Amazon.

http://www.3m.com/us/library/eBook/

http://www.btol.com/axis360.cfm


Cutting Kindle isn't even likely to help Kobo. Library ebook support didn't do all that much for Sony. And since the Kindle deal is US only, a market that is just an afterthought for Kobo, they're not going to get much in the way of added sales without first raising their visibility outside the hobbyist market.

Overdrive would lose more strategically than Kobo could possibly gain.

[MGlitch]

Originally Posted by PeterT

Could you cite where this tidbit came from?

From the article here

“The near-term opportunity is for us to do a more direct integration with Kobo apps and devices, where you can instantly borrow a book from a school or library and have it appear on your Kobo bookshelf,” OverDrive CEO Steve Potash said."

Which as far as I can find has been the only comment about future plans. Could Rakuten make Overdrive favor Kobo only? Sure, but unless they can ensure Kindle users convert to Kobo changing the behavior could negatively impact them as well. Fewer Kindle users borrowing library books equates to less need for the library to have more licenses to lend, and thus less money via that revenue stream for Rakuten.

I think it's more likely that they remove the exclusivity of it from Kindle and leave it at that, as others have stated there are alternatives to Overdrive and I'm sure Amazon can work out deals with those companies as well.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by MGlitch

“The near-term opportunity is for us to do a more direct integration with Kobo apps and devices, where you can instantly borrow a book from a school or library and have it appear on your Kobo bookshelf,” OverDrive CEO Steve Potash said."

The Sony ereaders could do that.
So can the Overdrive Apps.

It would only make sense for Kobo to add it now.
It also made sense to do it when Sony was doing it.

Find your library on your device

From the home screen on your Sony Reader, tap the > button.
If available, tap Public Library. If you don't see this option, open your browser and go to overdrive.com to locate your library.
On the page that opens, do not tap Find libraries near you. Instead, scroll down to the section that says "Thousands of libraries" and use the search bar there to search for your library (typically your postal code is the easiest way to search).
In the search results, tap your library's name to start browsing its digital collection.

Borrow and download titles using your Sony Reader

Browse for an eBook to borrow in your library's digital collection.
When you find an eBook you want to borrow, tap the book jacket, then tap Borrow. You can also tap more to see additional details about the eBook.
Note: If you're not signed into your library website, you will be prompted to do so now.
Download the borrowed eBook.
Tap the Status Bar (at the very top of your screen), then tap the eBook you just downloaded to open it.

[tubemonkey]

I wonder if Rakuten will have more clout now in dealing with publishers to get their WMA audiobook titles finally converted over to MP3? OverDrive has been going at this for over a year now with minimal success and not much movement lately.

[jj2me]

Maybe the revenue stream from libraries wasn't their sole reason for this purchase.

My first thought upon reading "Rakuten Buys OverDrive" was that they could info-mine our reading habits, in order to more accurately target us for their myriad of other retail products.

No facts whatsoever behind this thought, just run-of-the-mill modern consumer skepticism.