There goes the neighbourhood: Goodreads sold out
Goodreads, the social media platform all about books, has been sold to Amazon for an ‘undisclosed sum’.
Jay Greene for CNET says:
Goodreads founder Otis Chandler started the company seven years ago, creating a service that’s grown to more than 16 million readers who share their favorite and least favorite books with others. In a blog post, Chandler said he sold Goodreads, in part, to tap the “reach and resources” of Amazon. He also noted that Goodreads members have asked for an e-reader experience, something that Amazon will provide with its Kindle.
“You’ve asked us for a long time to be able to integrate your Kindle and Goodreads experiences,” Chandler wrote. “Making that option a reality is one of our top priorities.”
*cough* BULLSHIT *cough* That’s justification for selling out. Goodreads was usually capable of linking books, even books not yet released, to the platform. It was easy enough to find ebooks assuming they were available – many ebooks available elsewhere in the world are still not available in Australia. It also pisses me off that ebooks Amazon sells in the US, for example, tend to be one third of the price of ebooks sold in Australia. It’s all that expensive shipping and packaging, dontcha know.
Goodreads will now be another shopfront for Amazon in its bid to take over the publishing industry worldwide.
