Last month, Amazon declared that it had acquired the “social cataloguing” website, Goodreads. The e-commerce giant made this deal so its customers could not only discover new books but also get recommendations as well. However, according to the latest report from the The Wall Street Journal, Amazon was not the only company that was pursuing Goodreads. California-based tech giant, Apple also had ambitions to develop a partnership with the “social cataloguing” website but unfortunately Amazon took the cake away from the iOS device maker. Here is the original piece from WSJ’s report:
“Amazon.com’s announcement last month that it was purchasing book-recommendation site Goodreads did more than land the e-commerce giant a social-networking service. It also thwarted a possible partnership between the reading social network and Apple.”
“Over the past year, Apple and Goodreads had begun discussing integrating Goodreads’ service, which allows users to share and rate what they are reading, into Apple’s iBookstore, which sells digital books, according to people familiar with the matter.”
Another source revealed that Goodreads wanted to add its ratings and reviews into Apple’s iTunes so they could be exhibited when the users looked for books. This idea was similar to a Rotten Tomatoes plan that was inserted into the digital software. Although Apple listened to the idea, the Cupertino-based company did not pay much attention to it afterwards.
Apple once again showed interest in resuming talks with Goodreads so they could take things forward, but at that time the “social cataloguing” website went completely silent, which made iTunes executives confused. The reason behind Goodreads silence was that the service was having serious talks with Amazon, so it could be acquired by the e-commerce company.
Nevertheless, Apple did not lose hope and one of its executive tried to engage Goodreads once again in order to take the discussions to next level, but the community based service declined the proposition.
According to iPhoneinCanada, “Apple has long been embarked in a legal battle with the US Department of Justice, which alleges the company colluded with book publishers to set book prices.” In addition to this, Apple has been saying for a long time now that Amazon has a “monopolistic grip on the publishing industry”.
A denial from Goodreads must have hurt Apple as the company was not only looking to set the prices of books with its lawsuit, but has issues with Amazon’s hold over the publishing industry.
Source: iPhoneinCanada
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