What’s the Future of E-Books and What Role Will Blockchain Play? Two Startups Will Explore It…

If any industries are riper for disruption than others, publishing and literature would be. The argument is relatively simple: anyone with access to a publishing platform and a halfway decent story can publish a book, but it’s up to others to decide whether that book is any good.

As a result, the world of literature is currently ruled by three leading companies: Amazon, Apple, and Google. They control which books are published in digital format, which books are given pride of place in their respective online bookstores, and which books are promoted. Moreover, all three companies use their enormous size to give specific authors an advantage over others, with the most successful few earning enough money to fund entire new generations of writers.

It’s not often technology emerges that promises to take on entire swaths of significant industry. But the e-book market is quickly becoming one such sector. Publica and Rakuten Eduson are out to do just that, with the first set to launch its cryptocurrency in November.

Role of Publica:

Publica intends to do for books what Ethereum did for apps. The startup, which raised $1 million in an initial coin offering in October, wants to empower authors with tools that allow them to self-publish and run their e-commerce storefronts and crowdfund directly from readers. The hope is this newfound access will curtail the dominance of Amazon.

Publica’s e-reader app, scheduled to launch in December, will feature content from several partners for its public beta release, including New York Times bestselling author Laura Antoniou and Forbes contributor Ian Treneer. Check platforms like this software.

Meanwhile, Rakuten Eduson, which operates 200 schools throughout Japan, has employed.

The e-book market industry is currently estimated at over $3 billion in the U.S alone, and it’s expected to grow even more in upcoming years. 

Introduction of Ether Reader:

Companies like Oyster and Scribd have been working on disrupting this industry. However, the problem with these platforms is that they require users to own a membership card to access their content. It means that these platforms are not accessible for everyone, and some prefer reading e-books without going through all of that hassle. 

It has led other companies to try their luck in this field. One of these companies is SolidOpinion, which recently unveiled the launch of its e-reader, called Ether Reader. The newly introduced platform will offer users access to content from different digital publishers without requiring any prior subscription or registration.

According to reports, the platform will allow readers to buy books online and read them on their devices. The forum will also allow users to buy and sell books with each other, making it a decentralized e-book ecosystem.

“Our goal at SolidOpinion is to create a superior user experience, one that we hope becomes the de facto standard for publishing and consuming content online,” said Daniel Brusilovsky, Co-Founder of SolidOpinion.

The company hopes to bring down the e-book market’s gatekeepers and allow users to freely exchange ideas by sharing content and buying and selling these with each other.

Role of Kobo in disrupting e-book industry:

Another project that has recently entered the e-book industry with a similar goal is Kobo, which partnered with BitCrystals earlier this year. The project plans on using blockchain technology to allow users to create their e-books and even sell them using BCY tokens.

“BitCrystals is providing an incentive for game developers by giving them access to the tools to be able to create their own tokenized game items on Kibo,” said Ronny Boesing, CEO of Crypto Coins Exchange Denmark ApS.

“This is a benefit for all parties in the ecosystem,” he adds. “Readers will be able to acquire a whole new set of unique and scarce game items that can only be found on Kibo. And since these tokens are tradable, it creates value for the game makers because it allows them to monetize their games by creating demand and liquidity for these items, which can be later used to exchange tokens with other players.”

It is another step towards disrupting the e-book industry. These new platforms are trying to make this ecosystem more democratic by allowing anyone to create content and sell it without going through a lengthy and complicated process.

Hopefully, more projects like this will start appearing shortly, and you can see whether or not blockchain technology can genuinely disrupt this industry.