We don’t live in a one business model suits all kind of world which is why a service dubbed as the “Netflix for eBooks” is shutting down. Sure, Netflix has been an incredible success in a short span of time, but that doesn’t mean it’s business model can be applied to content like ebooks. The Oyster team has confirmed that they’re now taking steps to “sunset the existing Oyster service over the next several months.”
The team doesn’t say why it’s shutting down the service, it only mentions that some of them will be taking on new opportunities to “fully realize our vision for eBooks.” According to a report many employees from Oyster will now be taking positions at Google. Oyster subscribers will soon receive emails informing them about the imminent closure of the service.
Oyster certainly wasn’t the only service out there offering ebooks for a subscription fee, other players include the mighty Amazon with its Kindle Unlimited service and Scribd.
Now that many of the team members from Oyster are expected to be headed to Google what does that mean? There’s speculation that perhaps Google is interested in launching its own ebook subscription service, and given its infinitely deeper pockets, the company will certainly be able to sustain such a service.
Filed in . Read more about Ebooks, Google and Netflix. Source: blog.oysterbooks