Oyster, a Start-Up for E-Reading, Raises $14 Million
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Oyster, a Start-Up for E-Reading, Raises $14 Million
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Re: Oyster, a Start-Up for E-Reading, Raises $14 Million
#2> On Oyster, once a person reads more than 10 percent of the book, it is officially considered “read.” Oyster then has to pay the publisher a standard wholesale fee.
via: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/25/technology/as-new-services...
This article also talks about the "Sizzler Problem." Oyster costs $10/mo, so they basically have to hope that, on aggregate, people won't read more than that in cost of wholesale fees. It'd be really interesting to look at their actual numbers against Spotify and the other companies with a similar model. According to the article, only 2% of users read more than 10 books a month.
I'd imagine that the % of users that actually "cost" them money couldn't be more than ~5-10% of their entire subscriber-base. Anyone have any insight into this?
Re: Oyster, a Start-Up for E-Reading, Raises $14 Million
#3> On Oyster, once a person reads more than 10 percent of the book, it is officially considered “read.” Oyster then has to pay the publisher a standard wholesale fee. via: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/25/technology/as-new-services... This article also talks about the "Sizzler Problem." Oyster costs $10/mo, so they basically have to hope that, on aggregate, people won't read more than that in cost of wholesale fees.…
I don't have any insight, but I'm curious myself. How exactly do you compete with Amazon here? Considering Kindle, free wireless delivery, free classics, market power, etc, etc.. Competition also comes in the form of libraries.
Re: Oyster, a Start-Up for E-Reading, Raises $14 Million
#4I guess a negative reaction on HN isn't always necessarily an indicator of potential failure: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6335153
Don't take a negative reaction as the be all and end all when you present something to people.
Re: Oyster, a Start-Up for E-Reading, Raises $14 Million
#5If only there were public institutions where you could get books (and eBooks!) for free...
Re: Oyster, a Start-Up for E-Reading, Raises $14 Million
#6I am paying something similar per month for safari service from Oreilly ( mostly tech books). I would gladly switch to a service that offers a wider range of books .
Re: Oyster, a Start-Up for E-Reading, Raises $14 Million
#7I am Oyster subscriber. Their app is pleasant to use. I do miss a little more organization, but I am fine with it overall.
It is heavily curated ie. you get a lot of suggestions. And since they have rather limited selection, this is great. I managed to read through 3 books already and have a queue of several. I noticed that some were from Gutenberg project, so I guess they will not have to pay for those.
Overall I like experience and will continue to use, as well as Amazon and piratebay and other services to get myself books.
Only thing that might turn me off is, they have limited selection, but they can remedy that while I am going through books already available.
I really need them to come up with good Android app.
Re: Oyster, a Start-Up for E-Reading, Raises $14 Million
#8I am paying something similar per month for safari service from Oreilly ( mostly tech books). I would gladly switch to a service that offers a wider range of books .
You will not find books you can find on Safari here :) I need to check them as I was under impression they cost much more.
Re: Oyster, a Start-Up for E-Reading, Raises $14 Million
#9I guess a negative reaction on HN isn't always necessarily an indicator of potential failure: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6335153 Don't take a negative reaction as the be all and end all when you present something to people.
Oyster might not be a failure yet, but it certainly hasn't succeeded in a meaningful way yet. Getting funding might be a step towards it.
Re: Oyster, a Start-Up for E-Reading, Raises $14 Million
#10When i was a nerdy little boy, had someone asked me what I'd do with 1 million dollar, I might have answered I would build a huge library, because nothing is as awesome as a great library.
Today, I have the biggest encyclopedia humankind ever made with me all the time, my university gives me access to the most recent research in my field from anywhere in the world, and for a tiny fraction of my income I get all the great music, all the movies (okay, some work needed there), and soon the almighty library I dreamed of as a child. These are wonderful times we life in.