Kobo has just signed a deal with retail giant Walmart to have its ebooks featured on the company’s main Canadian website. This gives customers the ability to buy almost 2.3 million ebooks with one-click check-out services.
The Kobo e-reader and Kobo Wireless have been available at most Walmart locations since May 2010, so the two companies have an existing relationship prior to the eBook deal sealed today. Walmart was one of the first companies to seriously back Kobo when they first started making e-readers. The agreement gives Walmart the ability to have one of the largest back-catalog of ebooks, newspapers, and magazines.
“With the addition of Kobo’s tremendous eBook library, Walmart has shown its commitment to offer its customers not only a top-rated device, but also extensive content making it easier than ever to enjoy the eReading experience,” said Todd Humphrey, executive vice president of business development , Kobo. “Over the past two years, we’ve built a solid relationship with Walmart Canada, with continuing support for our wireless eReaders by Walmart customers. Our new featured partner status promises to expand our footprint among the growing eReading community, and we expect that the Kobo eBooks will be a popular destination for online shoppers.”
Kobo has aggressively formulated business relationships with OEMs, retailers and content owners around the world, creating an overall eBook solution that provides consumers the freedom to read on any device. Their technology can be found on the Readers Hub for the Samsung Galaxy Tab, on the Blackberry Playbook, and many more.
Today, Kobo has more than three million users and customers in 100-plus countries worldwide. The company has added just over one million of those users in less than 90 days. In addition to its global store, Kobo already offers locally merchandised English language stores in the U.S., Canada, UK, Australia and New Zealand. At the London Book Fair last month the company announced plans to expand into Europe with localized stores in Germany, Spain, France, Italy, and the Netherlands.
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.
