Filip Novotny When it comes to corporate acquisitions, we think of Microsoft, Apple and Google the most in the technology world. Late yesterday, however, another big player, Amazon.com, joined the ranks.
A well-known internet seller invested his money in social network purchases Goodreads. It is a portal where users can easily learn about new and old books and discuss them with friends. Although this portal is not very widespread in Central Europe, it enjoys a large user base abroad. In addition, Amazon is certainly not interested in simply owning a social network, it had other reasons for the purchase.
Goodreads uses a very high-quality algorithm for calculating related titles, similar to, for example, Genius in iTunes from Apple's workshop. Thanks to such an algorithm, Amazon could offer the user more and more books that he might like. Maybe so much so that they buy them directly in the e-shop. Therefore, it is immediately clear why Amazon approached the store.
This acquisition could be an interesting start to the growth of online stores and discussion servers, or social networks. Apple tried a similar combination in the past, with the Ping music service. It was supposed to help iTunes users discuss music and also discover new authors. However, few people used Ping, so you won't find this service in the apple player for some time.
A respectable 16 million users use Goodreads. However, it is not yet clear what will happen to the network in the future. Amazon has not yet disclosed any details of yesterday's acquisition. The readers' social network can expect really big changes.
That's probably not bad news. Amazon has excellent services and GoodReads is a great site that will (hopefully) grow to a higher level under Amazon's leadership.
btw: minor ad in case anyone uses GoodReads, my profile:
/user/show/10516182-robin-martinez
Hmm, I'll probably register there too. Czech "bookfan" not much
probably only cbdb is better