the literary genre see life writing . rakuten kobo inc. type subsidiary industry bookselling consumer electronics founded toronto ontario canada december 2009 2009 12 1 founder michael serbinis headquarters toronto ontario canada area served global turkey united states united kingdom canada japan brazil australia new zealand france germany netherlands austria ireland luxembourg belgium italy portugal spain south africa philippines key people takahito aiki chairman michael tamblyn president and ceo products e books e readers tablet computers reading applications number of employees 400 april 2014 2 parent rakuten 2012 present subsidiaries aquafadas website store.kobobooks.com rakuten kobo inc. is a canadian company which sells e books e readers and tablet computers . it is headquartered in toronto and is a subsidiary of the japanese e commerce conglomerate rakuten . the name kobo is an anagram of book . 3 4 it originated as shortcovers a cloud e reading service launched by the canadian bookstore chain indigo books and music in february 2009 . 5 in december 2009 indigo renamed the service kobo and spun it off into an independent company . indigo remained the majority owner with investors including borders group cheung kong holdings and redgroup retail taking minority stakes . 3 as of march 2010 update indigo books & music owned 58 % of kobo inc. 6 rakuten acquired the company from these owners in january 2012 . 7 8 9 on may 23 2016 waterstones announced it had sold its ebook business to rakuten kobo inc. and as of june 14 2016 users must access their ebooks via kobo s ebook site . 10 contents 1 products 1.1 e readers 1.2 tablets 1.3 applications 1.4 store and publishing 2 sales and market share 3 competitors 4 references 5 external links products edit e readers edit kobo produces several e readers with e paper screens . on the cheaper end its lineup consists of the base model kobo touch the smaller kobo mini and the kobo glo which has an illuminated screen . on the higher end it includes the kobo aura ; the kobo aura hd which adds a higher resolution screen ; and the waterproof kobo aura h2o . these e readers compete with the amazon kindle and barnes & noble nook product lines . kobo s e readers use wi fi to sync a user s book collection and bookmarks with kobo s cloud service which can also be accessed from kobo e reading apps for windows and os x computers and android ios blackberry and windows phone smartphones . tablets edit kobo also produces the kobo arc family of android tablets which it introduced in 2012 and refreshed in 2013 . it previously sold the kobo vox a 7 inch android tablet released in 2011 . applications edit kobo offers free reading applications for windows and os x computers and android ios blackberry and windows phone smartphones . in june 2015 kobo received a top developer badge in the google play store . 11 store and publishing edit kobo s bookstore was opened in 2010 . it is currently localized for 16 countries and comprises 4 million titles . 12 content sold on the kobo bookstore include ebooks newspapers and magazines . the majority of titles are sold in the open epub format albeit with drm . citation needed several digital book stores have closed down and transferred their users to kobo s bookstore . this includes the defunct borders ebook store 13 as well as the sony reader store . 14 both have provided tools for users to migrate purchases and information to kobo s offering . on 17 july 2012 kobo launched a self publishing platform called kobo writing life . 12 15 key features of kobo writing life include deep analytics allowing authors to track sales in real time ; a learning center to guide newcomers in digital publishing ; and allowing an author to sell books globally . by july 2014 250 000 books written by 30 000 authors have been published through this program ; these authors originate from 157 countries and have books published in 69 languages . 16 sales and market share edit kobo sells its devices online and through physical retail channels . the company has strategic partnerships with cheung kong holdings 17 w h smith 18 19 whitcoulls 20 fnac 21 and livraria cultura . 22 kobo also has a program partnering with independent bookstores to sell their devices . 23 according to the evp of business development todd humphrey from day 1 we made it our goal and a priority to be international ... if we weren t international we were not going to get the scale . we were not going to be able to get the pricing that some of our competitors would get to . 24 in the middle of 2014 kobo claimed to serve 18 million readers in over 190 countries with over 17 600 online and physical retail channels . 12 25 sony has been in the e reader market in japan for a long time but to be perfectly candid the only company we see as a competitor there is amazon . todd humphrey wired.com this approach led to wired singling out kobo as the only global competitor to amazon in the ebook market . 26 kobo now claims to have over 20 % of the worldwide market behind only amazon.com . 27 during the 2011 christmas period the company saw a record sevenfold growth in sales . 28 29 on christmas day 2012 kobo claims over 22 million pages were turned . 30 content revenue increased 44 % year over year in 2013 . 25 while hard independent market research numbers do not yet appear to be publicly available for other markets michael serbinis of kobo has stated that their u.s. marketshare is in the high single to low double digits . 31 kobo owner rakuten s ceo hiroshi mikitani has additionally stated that kobo is number one in france ; they re ahead of amazon in japan partially because of us and australia and new zealand as well . 32 kobo inc. released e book reading data collected from over 21 million readers worldwide in 2014 . some of the data said that only 45 % of uk readers finished the bestselling e book the goldfinch ; this is evidence that while popular e books are being completely read many are only sampled . 33 market share of e readers in canada by ipsos reid in january 2012 34 sellers percent kobo 46.0 % amazon 24.0 % sony 18.0 % others 12.0 % competitors edit amazon kindle barnes & noble bookmate google play store kindle store nook store sainsbury s references edit hartley matt 8 november 2011 . new chapter for kobo as firm sold to japan s rakuten . financial post . archived from the original on 8 november 2011 . retrieved 8 november 2011 . nursall kim . toronto based e reader kobo lays off 63 people . toronto star . retrieved 8 october 2015 . a b woods stuart 15 december 2009 . kobo spins off from indigo partners with borders . quill & quire . retrieved 2 november 2011 . world meet kobo . kobo caf . 15 december 2009 . retrieved 12 july 2014 . andriani lynn 9 february 2009 . indigo unveils shortcovers new e reading platform . publishers weekly . archived from the original on 2 november 2011 . retrieved 2 november 2011 . nowak peter 24 march 2010 indigo targets amazon with kobo e reader news ca cbc . e reader maker kobo inc. says its sales to japan s rakuten has closed . toronto canadian business . 11 january 2012 . archived from the original on 11 january 2012 . retrieved 11 january 2012 . rakuten completes acquisition of kobo . toronto tech finance . 12 january 2012 . retrieved 13 january 2012 . clark shaylin 11 january 2012 . e reading company kobo sold to rakuten for 315 million . webpronews . archived from the original on 13 january 2012 . retrieved 13 january 2012 . staff may 23 2016 . waterstones quits ebooks hands business to kobo . seenit.co.uk . kobo books android apps on google play . a b c kobo corporate backgrounder pdf . kobo . retrieved 11 july 2014 . carnoy david 20 july 2011 . kobo trying to untangle itelf from borders mess . cnet . archived from the original on 2 november 2011 . retrieved 2 november 2011 . http blog.sony.com 2014 02 the future of reader store kozlowski michael 18 july 2012 . kobo launches the writing life self publishing platform . good ereader . archived from the original on 12 september 2012 . retrieved 12 september 2012 . kozlowski michael . interview with michael tamblyn on kobo writing life and international expansion . good e reader . retrieved 23 may 2014 . indigo maintains majority ownership as kobo closes 50 million investment round . cnw group . 19 april 2011 . archived from the original on 2 november 2011 . retrieved 2 november 2011 . kobo announces partnership with leading uk retailer whsmith to deliver the kobo ereading platform and ereaders to customers . market watch . 13 october 2011 . retrieved 5 june 2011 . jones phillip 21 october 2011 . more detail on the w h smith kobo deal . future book . archived from the original on 2 november 2011 . retrieved 2 november 2011 . biba paul 26 april 2010 . whitcoulls of new zealand to launch ebooks kobo is branching out . teleread . archived from the original on 2 november 2011 . retrieved 2 november 2011 . kobo continues global expansion . kobo inc. 11 october 2011 . retrieved 2 november 2011 . kobo partners with livraria cultura to sell e readers in brazil . paidcontent.org . 15 september 2012 . retrieved 17 may 2013 . greenfield jeremy 5 april 2014 . indie bookstore sales of kobo ebooks dwarf google ; still small . digital book world . f w media ltd. retrieved 12 july 2014 . seave ava 27 september 2013 . digital reading company kobo on pace to be a billion dollar company . forbes . forbes.com llc . retrieved 12 july 2014 . a b rakuten financial results pdf . rakuten . retrieved 12 july 2014 . carmody tim 24 january 2012 . why rakuten s kobo is amazon s only global competition . wired.com . cond nast . retrieved 12 july 2014 . hsiao jim 14 november 2014 . digitimes research 4.57 million e book readers to be shipped globally in 4q12 . digitimes research . digitimes inc. retrieved 12 july 2014 . kozlowski michael 5 january 2012 . kobo experiences record growth during the last six weeks . good ereader . archived from the original on 5 january 2012 . retrieved 5 january 2012 . campbell lisa 5 january 2012 . kobo e book sales increase seven fold in december . london united kingdom the bookseller . archived from the original on 5 january 2012 . retrieved 5 january 2012 . gilbert david 16 january 2013 . kobo doubles e reader sales despite predicted decline . international business times . ibtimes co ltd. retrieved 12 july 2014 . krashinsky and strauss 6 september 2012 . 315 million kobo takeover deal a windfall for indigo . the globe and mail . retrieved 20 november 2012 . geron 6 september 2012 . rakuten ceo hiroshi mikitani on amazon pinterest and fixing japanese business . forbes . retrieved 20 november 2012 . ebooks can tell which novels you didn t finish . the guardian . december 10 2014 . barbour mary beth 19 april 2012 . blackberry apple and kobo vie for their share of the pie in canada s hot mobile device market . ipsos reid . retrieved 22 may 2012 . external links edit wikimedia commons has media related to kobo