Tim at LibraryThing contemplates the future, now that Amazon has acquired Shelfari:
Any any case, once the Amazon/Shelfari deal goes through, we are competing against Amazon.
The second element, as many also know, is that Amazon recently announced its intention to acquire Abebooks, the Canadian used-books aggregator that owns 40% of LibraryThing. The acquisiton will take place a month or two from now, I as undertstand it.
As a minority investor, Abe–and soon Amazon–does not control LibraryThing. I remain the majority investor and the President of the company. They have certain rights, but they don’t get our data and they don’t run the company. As president, I have traditionally worked very closely with Abe–beyond their rights as investors. I’m hoping that can continue, but I’m certainly going to stop talking about upcoming projects that Shelfari shouldn’t know about.
The problem. I myself can’t figure out what it all means, and how it will shake out. Some questions:
*Can Amazon own 100% of LibraryThing’s main competitor and manage its 40% stake in LibraryThing without implicating itself in fiduciary-responsibility conflict issues?
*Can LibraryThing continue to compete vigorously against Shelfari when Shelfari is owned by one of our investors? (Yes, I say. We wish only the best for Amazon qua investor, but not Amazon qua competitor.)
*What can LibraryThing do to protect itself against the possibility that Amazon uses its enormous financial and technical resources to fund and promote Shelfari?
This is rough. LibraryThing is a Good Thing, not least because of its open development model and “featureful” interface. As we know, however, the best product doesn’t always win the marketplace competition when there are deep pockets involved.
LibraryThing strategy in an age of Amazon/Shelfari | Recommend Site Improvements | LibraryThing.
Filed under: books, technology Tagged: | Amazon, LibraryThing, Shelfari
