Another competitor to the Amazon Kindle-Goodreads book tracking empire has emerged.
Monday reading tracker StoryGraph Collaborated with Rakuten’s Kobomaker of a more open e-reader (and Kindle alternative), allowing book lovers to automatically track their reading habits.
It was integration Firstly It was announced in May and is now available for all Kobo account-based content.
This makes Kobo the first e-reader to integrate with StoryGraph’s book community platform and serves as another way to chip away at Amazon’s dominance in the digital book market. Traditionally, Amazon has retained its readers by offering low prices on books and e-books and combining that with its strong online reading community and social network Goodreads.
While many Goodreads competitors have emerged over the years, few have been able to establish a strong footprint because they lack the ability to integrate with customers’ e-readers, as Goodreads does with Kindle devices.
The StoryGraph-Kobo Merger It changes that, because it will now automatically sync the user’s reading progress with their StoryGraph account. This means that when you finish a book on your Kobo eReader, it will automatically be marked as read on the StoryGraph, keeping your reading stats up to date. The companies said the feature will work with both e-books and audiobooks, and that it works with any Kobo device and Kobo apps.
Book trackers like StoryGraph are popular because they provide an easy way for people to keep a record of their reading history and favorite books, and provide ways to discover recommendations based on what others are reading. As the name StoryGraph suggests, its analytics tend to go deeper, offering readers detailed charts on their reading mood, speed, and more, to improve their reading habits.
It also offers an online community where you can participate in reading challenges and join book clubs, all while staying motivated to read by earning “streaks.” (Normally, we don’t like addictive gameplay actions in social apps, but to encourage reading, we’ll make an exception.)
Found it Black British engineer Nadia O’Donayo and CTO Rob Freelo In 2019, StoryGraph started as a side project and received no external funding. It has since grown into a community of over 5 million readers. The Kobo integration will now put the app in front of the e-reader maker’s 12 million users in 190 countries.
Kobo and StoryGraph aren’t alone in tapping into the cultural renaissance of reading, driven by online communities like #booktok and reading apps. According to Pew Research Center research, about three in 10 American adults (31%) reported having read an e-book in the past year, compared to 17% in 2011.
Startup Everand, which offers a marketplace for e-books and audiobooks, also recently bought digital book community app maker Fable to offer similar integration — without the hardware. (Perhaps Kobo will look to StoryGraph for its own M&A in the future?)
The new Kobo-StoryGraph integration does not require a subscription, although the StoryGraph app offers an additional $5 per month subscription that adds stats, filters, custom charts, and deeper comparison tools.
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