Oyster, the so-called Netflix for books, is expanding into online retail with a new e-book store that will compete directly with Amazon.
Oyster, which charges users US$9.95 for unlimited access to a library of more than 1m books, was founded by Eric Stromberg, Andrew Brown and Willem Van Lancker two years ago.
The app is available on the iPhone, iPad, Android, Nook HD, Kindle Fire and on the web.
The latest move into creating an e-book store that will compete with Amazon is something of an audacious move and e-books will cost between US$9.99 and US$14.99 to download.
Doing it by the book
Oyster currently has more than 1,600 publishing partners and 1m titles.
The launch of the new e-book store includes all five of the largest book publishers in the US: Hachette, HarperCollins, Macmillan, Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, and many more.
“The growth of Oyster to date demonstrates the huge demand in the market for a product with design and user experience at its core, offering a totally new way to discover and read books,” Stromberg said.
“We know that readers want to see all of their options and access every book—subscription and retail—in one place. With this launch, we’re pairing the best in subscription with the best in e-book retail to deliver a comprehensive offering for readers.”
E-book reader image via Shutterstock
