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Digital Publishing in 2013 — Meet the New Seven Sisters

Aggregated Content — Wed, 02 Jan 2013 17:56:55 +0000

By David Wogahn There seemed to be a sigh of relief the last few months of 2012 as the trade publishing establishment trumpeted the slowing growth of e-book sales. It may indeed be slowing, but the pain of adjusting to new economies of scale, changing consumer habits, technology adoption and lack of business model [...]

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Rakuten insists hidden reviews were of premature version of Kobo Touch service

Chris Meadows — Sat, 28 Jul 2012 03:41:31 +0000

On The Digital Reader, Nate Hoffelder discusses Rakuten’s response to those who noticed it has chosen to hide all consumer reviews of its Kobo Touch e-reader from Japan. Rakuten claims that a version of its site and service leaked before the actual launch date, so the reviews were of a product that was not actually [...]

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Rakuten removes all Japanese customer reviews of Kobo Touch from its website

Chris Meadows — Fri, 27 Jul 2012 00:10:18 +0000

Over at The Digital Reader, Nate Hoffelder has coverage of the Kobo Touch’s launch in Japan, which seems to have turned into something of a debacle. Bad reviews of the device were posted so prevalently to Rakuten’s website that it finally removed all reviews, both good and bad, from its site. Customers reported problems with [...]

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A war against Amazon in Japan

Paul Biba — Thu, 12 Jul 2012 14:16:11 +0000

From an article by Robin Birtle in Publishing Perspectives: TOKYO: The keynote panel discussion at Tokyo’s E-Book Expo, as part of the Tokyo Book Fair last week, wasn’t expected to get the pulses racing despite the presence of Mikitani-san, whose company Rakuten has acquired Kobo, and Noma-san, the leader of the giant publisher Kodansha. We [...]

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Here’s the official Kobo announcement about their entry into the Japanese market

Paul Biba — Mon, 02 Jul 2012 18:40:05 +0000

From the press release: Kobo Inc., a global leader in eReading, today announced that it will launch its full eReading service in Japan on July 19. The company’s award-winning Kobo Touch™ eReader will be offered to Japanese consumers for ¥7,980 including tax (or $100 USD). Starting today July 2, the Kobo Touch eReader is now [...]

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Rakuten (Kobo) to sell ereader in Japan; beats Amazon

Paul Biba — Wed, 27 Jun 2012 12:46:33 +0000

From The Asahi Shimbun: Rakuten Inc., Japan’s top online retailer, will release its own e-book reader in late July, marking its full-fledged entry into the e-book market. Hiroshi Mikitani, Rakuten chairman and CEO, said the company plans to price the Kobo Touch reader at around 10,000 yen ($126), considerably lower than that for existing similar [...]

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Kobo seeks to beat Amazon to Japanese marketplace with Kobo Touch

Chris Meadows — Sat, 23 Jun 2012 18:15:00 +0000

The Japanese paper Asahi Shimbun reports that Rakuten, the Japanese company that bought Canadian outfit Kobo, is going to try to beat Amazon to market in Japan by introducing the Kobo Touch there in July before Amazon is able to bring out its Kindle Touch there later this year. "As a Japanese company, we cannot [...]

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Kobo-owner Rakuten to sell Japanese e-books to Japanese consumers from Toronto

Chris Meadows — Tue, 12 Jun 2012 02:30:00 +0000

Remember the stories about how Amazon bases its European e-book operations in Luxembourg to avoid having to pay the huge VAT (Value-Added Tax) surcharges that would come from selling e-books out of England? The Bookseller reports this strategy might also make it “big in Japan”. Or, rather, big outside of Japan. Japanese company Rakuten, who [...]

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Kobo could be Amazon’s only major international competitor

Chris Meadows — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 06:17:23 +0000

On Wired’s Epicenter blog, Tim Carmody writes about why he thinks that the main global e-book competitor Amazon has to worry about is Kobo. He points out that while Amazon and Apple have been making highly visible splashes with their new hardware or e-publishing initiatives, Kobo has quietly been building support from a multinational network [...]

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Rakuten completes purchase of Kobo

Chris Meadows — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 04:49:14 +0000

Engadget has the press release from Kobo on the completion of its purchase by e-commerce company Rakuten. Kobo’s HQ will remain in Toronto, though Rakuten is based in Japan. Given that Rakuten owns a lot of popular e-commerce and other industry sites already (including e-tailer Buy.com), it has the potential to give Kobo a lot [...]

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