The Future of Kobo: “definitely other stuff going forward”

Interesting news: Kobo has been acquired for the tidy sum of $315 million. I always liked Kobo’s social reading approach. What wonders what this means for the future of Kobo’s ebooks, apps, and platform. Going forward, it seems that books are going to be only one piece of the larger picture.

Per BBC: “Japanese giant Rakuten buys Kobo ebook business”

“The company also hopes to use Kobo and its popular book-themed social network to expand its other services. Rakuten operates travel, banking, e-commerce, sports and media divisions.

“We feel that an ebook reader will ultimately not be only about selling books,” Rakuten’s chief executive, Pierre Kosciusko-Morizet, told the BBC.

“It’s about potentially selling other digital goods and it’s also about being in consumers’ homes with a hardware device.”

“Definitely the ebook market is not just for ebooks, it probably means going towards other stuff” said Mr Kosciusko-Morizet.”

TechCrunch (“Japanese E-Commerce Company Rakuten Buys E-Reading Platform Kobo For $315M In Cash“) has additional background details.