By late summer 2011, Kobo had an e-reader and 5 million users worldwide, but was burning through cash at an alarming rate, and Indigo was suffering from its own financial woes. That's when Japanese e-commerce giant Rakuten stepped in.
As Netflix has shown, there are major profits to be made in selling digital content subscriptions as a reseller. The subscription business model offers benefits for readers who want to read more books at a low cost. This blog compares ebook subscriptions to buying traditional books and the value to readers