Finally, they admit they can’t win in it. India’s biggest e-commerce store Flipkart has officially exiting from selling eBooks. Flipkart has partnered with Rakuten Kobo and will moving out your Flipkart eBooks library to Kobo.
Starting from 11th December 2015, users will not be able to make any new purchases on the Flipkart eBooks store (actually they have already removed the entire eBooks section from website and mobile app and now redirecting users to their homepage). Users who have already bought eBooks from Flipkart can continue to access their eBooks from their library by downloading them on their device. Most of the eBooks will be transferred to Kobo and money will be refunded for the books which are not available on Kobo’s ebook store.
The reason to exit?
“The Indian book market is overwhelmingly dominated by physical books and this is a market that is growing at a fast clip. Flipkart will continue to be a leading player in the overall books market in India. In its overall strategy for books, Flipkart does not see the e-Books service as a strategic fit and hence the decision of transitioning the e-Books service to Kobo.” according to a statement from Flipkart.
It to be noted that competitor Amazon India has just expanded its ebook business in India by launching Kindle Unlimited subscription service along with their own Kindle devices.