Oyster to launch online e-book store to take on Amazon

Oyster, an e-books subscription service, has announced to foray into online retail with an e-book store to take on Amazon. Until now, Oyster sold subscription book services starting at $9.95/month, but now plans to sell individual books via an online store. Oyster’s borrowing libraries include titles from five big publishers including Macmillan, News Corp’s (NWSA) HarperCollins, CBS’s Simon & Schuster, Hachette and Penguin Random House. This means users will be able to buy and read virtually any book from these publishers on their smartphones or tablets. The Oyster book subscription service launched in 2013 was known as the ‘Netflix for Books’. “Unlike with music and television, Oyster’s e-book subscription model, which was somewhat novel when it launched, has done little to supplant traditional book sales, mostly because binge-reading is harder to do. Binge-watching an entire season of Netflix’s political drama “House of Cards” in a single weekend, on the other hand, is much easier,” points out Wired. The subscription service doesn’t always allow browsing and discovering certain books on such services, especially new releases and pre-orders. Oyster wants to ensure that subscribers get the best of both worlds - subscription services along with e-book purchase model.