Kobo Inc.

Rakuten Kobo Inc., or simply Kobo, is a Canadian company that sells ebooks, audiobooks, e-
readers and tablet computers. It is headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Canada and is a subsidiary
of the Japanese e-commerce conglomerate Rakuten. The name Kobo is an anagram of
book.[3][4]

History
Kobo originated as Shortcovers, a cloud eReading service launched by the Canadian bookstore
chain Indigo Books and Music in February 2009.[5] In December 2009, Indigo renamed the
service Kobo and spun it off into an independent company. Indigo remained the majority owner,
with investors including Borders Group, Cheung Kong Holdings, and REDgroup Retail taking
minority stakes.[3] As of March 2010, Indigo Books & Music owned 58% of Kobo Inc.[6] Rakuten
acquired the company from these owners in January 2012.[7][8] On 23 May 2016, Waterstones
announced it had sold its eBook business to Rakuten Kobo Inc., and as of 14 June 2016, users
were required to access their eBooks via Kobo's eBook site.[9]

During the COVID pandemic, Kobo worked with governments, publishers, and retail partners to
provide more than 20 million free books through the “Stay Home and Read” programme. The
company reported that romance and mystery novels continued to be bestsellers during the
pandemic and that there was a rise in books for kids and young adults.[10]
Products Rakuten Kobo Inc.

E-readers Formerly Shortcover

(2009)
Kobo produces several e-readers with ePaper
screens. The first Kobo eReader was
Kobo Inc.
introduced in 2010.[11] The product lineup (2009–
went on to consist of the base model Kobo
Touch, the smaller Kobo Mini, and the Kobo 2016)
Glo, which has an illuminated screen. On the
higher end, the Kobo Aura; the Kobo Aura HD, Company Subsidiary
which added a higher-resolution screen, the
waterproof Kobo Aura H2O; and the type
waterproof Kobo Forma which added physical
buttons and a choice of orientation.[12] In
2018, the company released the Kobo Clara Industry bookselling
HD as another 6-inch option (the Aura Edition consumer
2 being the first).[13]
electronics
In 2019, the Kobo Libra H2O was released.

Founded Toronto, On
Kobo partnered with Hotel Viu Milan to create
a Reader in Residence program and for a
month, the Kobo Libra H2O was placed in Canada
hotel rooms for guests to use.[14] In 2020,
Kobo introduced the Kobo Nia, an entry-level (December
e-reader to replace the discontinued Kobo
Aura.[15] In 2021, Kobo introduced the Kobo Founder Michael
Elipsa, an e-reader and smart notebook that
allows users to write on the screen.[16] Serbinis
These eReaders compete with the Amazon
Kindle and Barnes & Noble Nook product Headquarters Toront
lines.
Ontari
Kobo's eReaders use Wi-Fi to sync a user's
book collection and bookmarks with Kobo's
Canad
cloud service, which can also be accessed
from Kobo eReading apps for Windows and Area Global
macOS computers, Android and iOS served Turkey
smartphones.
United
States
Tablets United
Kingdom
Kobo produced the Kobo Arc family of
Canada
Android tablets, which it introduced in 2012
and refreshed in 2013. It previously sold the Japan
Kobo Vox, a 7-inch Android tablet released in
2011. In 2014, Kobo discontinued the Arc
Brazil
tablets and did not develop another one.[17]
Australia
New
Zealand
Applications France
Kobo offers free reading applications for
Germany
Windows and MacOS computers and Android Netherlands
and iOS smartphones. In June 2015, Kobo
received a Top Developer badge in the Google Austria
Play store.[18] In 2017, Kobo acquired Shelfie,
an app that organises personal libraries.[19]
Ireland
Luxembourg
 Belgium
Kobo Plus Italy
Subscription Portugal
Service Spain
South Africa
Kobo Plus is the company’s unlimited
audiobook and eBook subscription service.[20]
Philippines
It was first released in the Netherlands and Taiwan
Belgium in 2017 and then expanded to
Canada in 2020.[21] In 2021, Kobo signed an Mexico
agreement with LeYa, a Portuguese publishing
group, and launched Kobo Plus e_LeYa, which Key Takahito
made exclusive content available in
Portugal.[20]
people Aiki
As of May 2021, Kobo Plus offered 599,000 (Chairman)
eBooks and 94,000 audiobooks.[20] Books are
available in many languages.[21] Readers can
Michael
choose to subscribe to only eBooks or to Tamblyn
expand the service with Kobo Plus Listening,
which includes audiobooks.[22] (President
and CEO)
Products e-books, e-
Store and readers,
publishing audiobook
tablet
Kobo's bookstore was opened in 2009.[23]
Content sold on the Kobo Bookstore includes computers
eBooks, Audiobooks, newspapers, and
magazines. The majority of titles are sold in
the open ePub format, albeit with Digital rights
reading
management.[24] application
Several digital bookstores have closed down
and transferred their users to Kobo's Number of ~350
bookstore. They include the defunct Borders
employees (July
Group,[25] as well as the Sony Reader Store.[26]
Both have provided tools for users to migrate 2017)[2]
purchases and information to Kobo's offering.

On 17 July 2012, Kobo launched a self- Parent Rakuten

publishing platform called Kobo Writing Life
(KWL).[27] Key features of Kobo Writing Life
(2012–
include "deep analytics", allowing authors to present)
track sales in real-time; a "learning centre" to
guide newcomers in digital publishing; and
Website www
allowing an author to sell books globally.[28]
.kobo
In 2019, KWL began offering self-publishing
opportunities for Audiobooks.[29] .com (htt
ps://ww
w.kobo.c
Emerging Writer om)
Prize
The Kobo Emerging Writer Prize awards three first-time Canadian authors with CAD 10,000
each.[30] The awards are given in three categories, Literary Fiction, Nonfiction, and Genre Fiction,
with the genre selection changing each year.[31] Traditionally published, and self-published books
are eligible, and authors receive marketing and communications support during their winning
year.[32]

In 2021, the award’s seventh year, the winning authors were: Michelle Good, author of Five Little
Indians (Fiction); Eternity Martis, author of They Said This Would Be Fun (Nonfiction); and Emily
Hepditch, author of The Woman in the Attic (Mystery).[33]

At the same time as the Libra 2, the Kobo Sage was also introduced as a new top model. It has
an 8" E-Ink Carta 1200 display with a resolution of 1440 × 1920 pixels and 32 GB internal
memory. A Bluetooth module and a USB-C port have also been installed. In addition, as with the
Elipsa, it is possible to capture notes on the device with a stylus.[34]

Sales and market share

Kobo sells its devices online and through physical retail channels. The company's strategic
partnerships have included Cheung Kong Holdings,[35] WHSmith,[36] Whitcoulls,[37] FNAC,[38]
Livraria Cultura,[39] and Eslite Bookstore.[40] Kobo partnered with Australian online bookseller
Booktopia[41] and also has a programme partnering with independent bookstores to sell their
devices.[42]

In 2012, Wired named Kobo as the "only global competitor to Amazon [in the eBook market]"[43]
with over 20 % of the worldwide market.[44]

Kobo Inc. released eBook reading data collected from over 21 million readers worldwide in 2014.
Some of the data said that only 45 % of UK readers finished the bestselling eBook The
Goldfinch.[45]

As of August 2018, Amazon's Kindle eReader had an 83.6% share of the U.S. eReader market
while Kobo had a 13.4 % share.[46]

Venture with Walmart

In 2018, the company and Walmart contracted to allow the latter to sell Kobo audiobooks,
eBooks and eReaders in the U.S. This was the first venture into eBooks for the retailer which also
began selling the Kobo eReaders.[47] Walmart installed eReader stations in over 1,000 stores.
Their eBook Web site was listing over 6 million titles. The retailer also began to offer
subscriptions for audiobooks at a monthly fee.[48]
Venture with Bol.com
In the Netherlands, Bol.com is contracted to sell Kobo audiobooks, eBooks and eReaders.[49]

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