First launched in May 2012, MediaCorp’s e-book store ilovebooks is now in the deadpool. Its homepage now urges users to backup their e-books and they have until May 6 to do so. Of course, it’s good news for the region’s e-book store startups that include Wayangforce (Indonesia), Ookbee (Thailand), and Scoop (Singapore/Indonesia) (1).
I reached out to Moo Natavudh, president director at Ookbee, who believes that ilovebooks faced huge competition from Amazon and Kobo, as it serves mainly English-based e-books. “The only reason we are unique is because Ookbee’s content can’t be found elsewhere,” Natavudh told me.
Scoop’s Willson Cuaca has a different view. As ilovebooks uses Adobe DRM, he commented that ilovebooks is hard to use as it requires two logins, both MediaCorp’s and Adobe’s. He also said that the Adobe DRM license is very costly and it takes a cut for every purchase made.
While Mediacorp tries to build its own e-book empire, its competitor, Singapore Press Holdings (SPH), chose to partner with Ookbee and Scoop. SPH has been making headlines in the tech press recently with the acquisition of Sgcarmart and also an investment in restaurant booking site, Chope.
(1) Disclosure: Apps Foundry, the creator of SCOOP, is an East Ventures portfolio company. East Ventures also invested in TechInAsia. See our ethics page for more information.
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