Kobo has just announced that they have come to terms to take over the e-book business unit of Exclusive Books. They will be gravitating everyone who purchased digital content to the Kobo ecosystem and Exclusive will begin emailing customers on how to begin the migration process.
Exclusive Books is one of the largest booksellers in South Africa and they are getting out of the e-book business. They are telling all of their digital customers to start using the Kobo apps and Kobo eReaders that are available at many major electronics retailers, including Circuit City and Incredible Connection. Kobo apps and devices also allow users to “side-load” their Adobe DRM-protected .epub and .pdf eBook files, purchased from Exclusive Books, the former Kalahari.com, and other retailers, into their Kobo libraries.
“We want to encourage people to read more and are pleased to be working with Exclusive Books to offer digital reading to its customers,” said Michael Tamblyn, CEO, Rakuten Kobo. “We have been sharing our love of books in South Africa for more than four years now, and will ensure Exclusive Books’ eBook customers are able to continue enjoying, as well as expand, their digital libraries.”
“Our partnership with Kobo will allow us to concentrate on what we do best, namely, curating and selling the largest and widest selection of physical book titles in Africa,” said Ben Williams, GM: Marketing, Exclusive Books. “Meanwhile, working with Kobo will help us deliver a world-class eReading experience to our customers who prefer digital books.”
Exclusive Books will be sending its customers a series of emails with tokenized links, starting 17 January 2017, with instructions on how to easily transfer their libraries to Rakuten Kobo. They will have access to eBooks previously purchased at Exclusive Books, as well as new purchases at Kobo.com.
A few further things to note during this transition:
- Exclusive Books will no longer sell eBooks on our website, but will rather direct customers to Kobo’s digital library.
- In January and February 2017 we will assist customers who have already purchased eBooks from us to migrate as many of their eBooks as possible over to their Kobo accounts. In 95% of cases, we will be able to replicate your entire digital library inside Kobo – giving you a better, more seamless eReading experience at the same time.
- Customers who already have a Kobo account will be able to merge their migrated Exclusive Books libraries into their Kobo libraries.
- We will aim to keep as many eBook download links in customers’ digital libraries as possible active at EB Online until June 2017, so that customers can still download eBooks they have already purchased from us.
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.
