Kobo officially announced today that they were launching their German eBook store and is providing updates to its IOS and Android apps to assist in the reading of the content.
Kobo first announced its foray into the German market during the London Book Fair a few months ago. They are making a stalwart effort to push into Europe and offer books in other languages. Germany continues to be one of the strongest markets in Europe and Kobo is starting there first.
The company will be offering 80,000 in German on the first day of the store opening. The website is operated by a German development team and includes bestsellers as . The new store, managed by a German team, features popular titles such as Susan Elizabeth Phillips‘ “Die schönsten Fehler meines Lebens,“ “Der alte König in seinem Exil“ (Arno Geiger) and “Der ultimative Ratgeber für alles“ (Dieter Nuhr).
Kobo is not content to just sell books but intends on offering its Kobo Touch in August in various German electronic store retail channels. The e-reader will be customized to read the German language and feature menus and navigation to be in localized as well.
Kobo will be launching additional eBook stores in Spain, France, Italy and The Netherlands. As the company continues to expand into other European countries, Kobo will introduce local-language apps with local currency support and Reading Life to serve each country’s digital reading needs.
Currently Amazon opened their own bookstore in Germany in April and Kobo is the second major international company to expand there.
Michael Kozlowski is the Editor in Chief of Good e-Reader. He has been writing about audiobooks and e-readers for the past ten years. His articles have been picked up by major and local news sources and websites such as the CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and Verge.