Kindle Unlimited is the latest entrant into Netflix for e-books subscription style of service. In a short period of time Amazon has managed to attain more paid members using its platform than the competition.
The Codex Group has reported in their April 2015 consumer survey, 12.4% of digital book consumers have a Kindle Unlimited subscription. In comparison, only 1.4% of respondents reported that they had a Scribd membership, and eve fewer were paying for Oyster.
Good e-Reader Research also has Kindle Unlimited as the most dominant player in the field. In a recent study 117 people voted on the subscription site that was most appealing to them. Amazon has 52% of the vote, while Scribd had 28.21%, Oyster 6.84%, Entittle 0.85% and Other 12%.
I think its very telling about our own recent report that so few people actually took part in the poll. Normally we have 600 people or more that participate and its very telling on the health of the overall industry that hardly anyone is captivated by thousands of books available for a low monthly fee.
One of the largest barriers for customers to buy into this subscription style of service is international availability. Kindle Unlimited is only in a handful of countries, such as the US and select markets in Europe. Entittle and Oyster are exclusively targeted customers in the United States. This leaves Scribd as the only other player that actually has a far wider reach.
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.