The Facebook of Books
Yet in my opinion, successful authors have always needed large publishers – the same ones that are derided as monopolies – to spread their books to a worldwide audience. If Amazon decides to integrate Goodreads’ social media features more fully into its own website, then Amazon could actually become the “Facebook of Books,” a social network that could actually help even more independent authors get recognized.
In the end, the quality that gives Amazon an edge over its competitors is how it allows it customers to engage with each other. With online reviews, discussion and sharing over social networks, Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) knows that it is developing into a social network for readers. Here are some immediate benefits for Amazon in the Goodreads deal:
Better reviews from dedicated readers, since Amazon has been struggling with review fraud recently. Reviews from social media sites are harder to manipulate, since they are tied to a single profile and thus easier to identify that typical Amazon reviews.
Succeeding where its 2008 acquisition of Shelfari, another review site, failed. Amazon had previously thought that Shelfari could compete socially against Goodreads.
More collected data to analyze and use for its sales and marketing initiatives, which could pay for itself by reducing the company’s SG&A (sales, general and marketing) expenses.
Considering that many authors already spend so much time building dedicated pages on Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) for their books, a full social media site from Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN), complete with friend’s lists, news feeds and chat functions, could be a major game changer for the industry.
Goodreads is merely acting as a launchpad for Amazon to get started in its social networking initiatives. Amazon has the most powerful servers in the world and a robust cloud-based network, which certainly give it the muscle to dramatically upgrade its site. After all, why would publishers still spend time building a fan or business page on Facebook when they can build one on Amazon, the largest online bookstore in the world?
The Bottom Line
In conclusion, Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) still wants to be all things to all people. Even as it is acquiring Goodreads, it is working with automakers to integrate its Amazon Cloud Player into new vehicles, developing original programming for the Internet and adding a wine marketplace to its site.
So what’s stopping Amazon from growing its own social network to rival Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB), which is also considered ‘insurmountable’ in its own right, with over a billion users? According to Alexa, Facebook is the second most visited domain in the United States, while Amazon is ranked fifth. Therefore, Amazon could indeed close in on Facebook as a leading social network – except that Amazon users would be sharing book reviews, and not photos, with each other.
The article Will Amazon Become the ‘Facebook of Books’? originally appeared on Fool.com and is written by Leo Sun.
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