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Amazon was pretty much forced to buy Goodreads: the original business model of Goodreads before the Amazon buyout was making money from referral links to bookse

Amazon was pretty much forced to buy Goodreads: the original business model of Goodreads before the Amazon buyout was making money from referral links to booksellers. While links were provided to several internet booksellers besides Amazon, like Barnes & Noble, already the vast majority of internet users were hooked on Amazon and only buying through Amazon links. Consequently, Amazon was paying Goodreads a huge amount of money in referral fees each month, and it made more sense for Amazon to simply buy the site and stop that. I agree that Amazon is nefarious and destructive, but I think any company in the same position would have bought Goodreads out.

thewhitetulip 6y ago
It's alright if they bought it, and it is a very bad social media. You'd think that they'd improve the app right? Facebook/Instagram should just add a books section to their main page as a challenger to goodreads, maybe that'll help?
- LockAndLol 6y ago
  That's one of the best jokes I've read all day. Instagram and book reading. That cracked me up. Thank you
  - prepend 6y ago
    Imagine all the great pictures of yoga models holding Dune covers. I can’t imagine a more vapid collection of reading signaling posts.
  - SECProto 6y ago
    I have a number of friends who have posted a book they've enjoyed in their story after finishing. I've gotten a few recommendations and had a few good discussions from that. Social media is pretty dependent on how you use it - I have non-toxic experiences because I mostly only follow people I know on twitter/IG/FB. Turn off retweets (or equiv) for those who use it to spread negative bs.
chrisseaton 6y ago
> the vast majority of internet users were hooked on Amazon and only buying through Amazon links. Consequently, Amazon was paying Goodreads a huge amount of money in referral fees This doesn't make any sense. If consumers were already only buying through Amazon... why would Amazon continue to pay referral fees? The referral fee is there to get people who wouldn't buy through Amazon to buy through Amazon. But they were already buying through Amazon... so what's the point?
- dageshi 6y ago
  They're saying that goodreads became an alternate front end to amazon for finding books but users used amazon (via affiliate links) to actually buy the book. Goodreads was better at helping users find new books they wanted than amazon themselves and so it made sense for amazon to buy them.
  - chrisseaton 6y ago
    > Goodreads was better at helping users find new books they wanted than amazon themselves and so it made sense for amazon to buy them. I still don’t get it - people were already finding books on Goodreads and buying them on Amazon... so why did Amazon need to buy them? Why pay for it if it’s already working for you? And why pay a referral fee if people already want to ignore other options and go to Amazon to buy after finding on Goodreads?
    - Abhinav2000 6y ago
      Because they had to pay goodreads a commission each time (say 5% —> i’m completely making this number up and its probably a lot lower). So if 70% of goodreads profit is from Amazon, amazon figured they could just buy them since the cost of running goodreads is a lot lower than the commissions it makes so amazon was basically paying them anyway. better (in their view at the time) to just pay goodreads one off and buy the company than to pay each year in perpuity. depends on the price they bought it at
      - 6y ago
mark_l_watson 6y ago
I hate to complain, but I hate the Goodread suggestions in my iPad Kindle app. I don’t want to be the target of marketing when reading. I don’t want to see badge alerts. Poor customer experience. I have always bought a small percentage of my eBooks on Apple Books or Google Play Books, just to avoid my whole library being tied to one company. Since the advertising annoyances in the Kindle app, I have been buying more from other vendors.
prostoalex 6y ago
> Consequently, Amazon was paying Goodreads a huge amount of money in referral fees each month, and it made more sense for Amazon to simply buy the site and stop that. Does Amazon has a track record of buying major referral generators? I'd imagine someone like SlickDeals generates higher revenue with affiliate links to higher-ticket non-book items.
- adventured 6y ago
  SlickDeals, as with most deal sites, is the equivalent of a B movie in Hollywood. They're considered trashy, low quality sites. Buying SlickDeals is close to bottom fishing if you're Amazon. Goodreads was classy by comparison and was/is not primarily about deals or referral links. Amazon considers itself to own the book category, period. Books will always hold a special place in their heart as the origination of the company. Amazon, as with all big companies, also considers its brand when it purchases other things. (some of the tech echo chamber may laugh at that notion, however that's nothing more than ignorance as Amazon has an extraordinary brand among the general population)

thewhitetulip 6y ago

It's alright if they bought it, and it is a very bad social media. You'd think that they'd improve the app right? Facebook/Instagram should just add a books section to their main page as a challenger to goodreads, maybe that'll help?

LockAndLol 6y ago
That's one of the best jokes I've read all day. Instagram and book reading. That cracked me up. Thank you
- prepend 6y ago
  Imagine all the great pictures of yoga models holding Dune covers. I can’t imagine a more vapid collection of reading signaling posts.
- SECProto 6y ago
  I have a number of friends who have posted a book they've enjoyed in their story after finishing. I've gotten a few recommendations and had a few good discussions from that. Social media is pretty dependent on how you use it - I have non-toxic experiences because I mostly only follow people I know on twitter/IG/FB. Turn off retweets (or equiv) for those who use it to spread negative bs.

chrisseaton 6y ago

> the vast majority of internet users were hooked on Amazon and only buying through Amazon links. Consequently, Amazon was paying Goodreads a huge amount of money in referral fees This doesn't make any sense. If consumers were already only buying through Amazon... why would Amazon continue to pay referral fees? The referral fee is there to get people who wouldn't buy through Amazon to buy through Amazon. But they were already buying through Amazon... so what's the point?

dageshi 6y ago
They're saying that goodreads became an alternate front end to amazon for finding books but users used amazon (via affiliate links) to actually buy the book. Goodreads was better at helping users find new books they wanted than amazon themselves and so it made sense for amazon to buy them.
- chrisseaton 6y ago
  > Goodreads was better at helping users find new books they wanted than amazon themselves and so it made sense for amazon to buy them. I still don’t get it - people were already finding books on Goodreads and buying them on Amazon... so why did Amazon need to buy them? Why pay for it if it’s already working for you? And why pay a referral fee if people already want to ignore other options and go to Amazon to buy after finding on Goodreads?
  - Abhinav2000 6y ago
    Because they had to pay goodreads a commission each time (say 5% —> i’m completely making this number up and its probably a lot lower). So if 70% of goodreads profit is from Amazon, amazon figured they could just buy them since the cost of running goodreads is a lot lower than the commissions it makes so amazon was basically paying them anyway. better (in their view at the time) to just pay goodreads one off and buy the company than to pay each year in perpuity. depends on the price they bought it at
    - 6y ago

mark_l_watson 6y ago

I hate to complain, but I hate the Goodread suggestions in my iPad Kindle app. I don’t want to be the target of marketing when reading. I don’t want to see badge alerts. Poor customer experience. I have always bought a small percentage of my eBooks on Apple Books or Google Play Books, just to avoid my whole library being tied to one company. Since the advertising annoyances in the Kindle app, I have been buying more from other vendors.

prostoalex 6y ago

> Consequently, Amazon was paying Goodreads a huge amount of money in referral fees each month, and it made more sense for Amazon to simply buy the site and stop that. Does Amazon has a track record of buying major referral generators? I'd imagine someone like SlickDeals generates higher revenue with affiliate links to higher-ticket non-book items.

adventured 6y ago
SlickDeals, as with most deal sites, is the equivalent of a B movie in Hollywood. They're considered trashy, low quality sites. Buying SlickDeals is close to bottom fishing if you're Amazon. Goodreads was classy by comparison and was/is not primarily about deals or referral links. Amazon considers itself to own the book category, period. Books will always hold a special place in their heart as the origination of the company. Amazon, as with all big companies, also considers its brand when it purchases other things. (some of the tech echo chamber may laugh at that notion, however that's nothing more than ignorance as Amazon has an extraordinary brand among the general population)