Amazon introduces cheap subscription services to woo e-readers

In a bid to attract more online users, tech giant Amazon is coming up with a new subscription service that will give the customers unlimited access to thousands of e-books and audio books for just USD 9.99 per month.

Amazon, which is the largest U.S. e-commerce site, on Friday announced the roll out of its Kindle Unlimited service and said that this new subscription service will allow the online readers to access thousands of e-books and audio books. Besides the users can also see over 600,000 Kindle titles like ‘Diary of a Wimpy Kid’ an ‘The Hunger Games’.

The users who are not willing to pay the subscription amount and want to try it for free initially can avail the benefits of a free 30-day trial offered by Amazon.

The American online users are growing day-by-day and their appetite for e-books is rising simultaneously. According to eMarketer estimates, about 79 million American will use e-book readers in 2014. The estimated figures for 2014 are nearly 9 percent from 72 million in 2013. The people in the age group 45 to 54 are the biggest readers of electronic books in 2014.

The subscription service has begun on Friday. The users can access the service through Kindle devices or with Amazon’s free Kindle reading apps.

“Even if the big publishers aren’t involved yet, the service is a necessary step for Amazon. People prefer subscription access to digital media,” Forrester Research analyst James McQuivey said while making special mention of movie- and TV- streaming service Netflix and music service Spotify as examples.

“Someone is going to figure out how to build a consumer brand around subscription books and force publishers to participate, and Amazon can’t afford for it not to be Amazon,” he added.

The development had positive impact on Amazon’s stock. It rose USD 5.22 to USD 357.67 in midday trading.

The new addition of services is welcoming change for Amazon. Time will say how far it is a real threat for its competitors.

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Christina Langfold

Remember that weird girl in school who never quite managed to fit in? Who was always silent and strange? That was me during my entire teenage life. A few years after finishing college (with a degree in arts) I decided that the best way to become more sociable, while also feeling safe, is to test my people skills online.