Kindle Review – Kindle Fire Review, Kindle 4 Review

Two recent news articles, one discussing GM cancelling a Buick SUV because of ‘hideous’ online reviews and the second discussing Hollywood being rattled by the impact of movie review tweets, illustrate the dangers of instant feedback mechanisms and network effects.

When we consider social features for kindle owners (or to be more precise the lack thereof) its worthwhile to point out that despite the pros there are some very good reasons (not necessarily for customers) that it hasn’t been done yet.

Possible Cons of an in-built Kindle Social Network.

3rd party co-opting Amazon as source for Kindle Books

Amazon’s biggest concern is losing its position as the only source for Kindle ebooks and content -

1. Making the Kindle social could lead to another company becoming the source for buying ebooks. 
2. Someone other than Amazon might become the source for bestseller lists and/or book recommendations. Which would eventually lead to the former. 

This is also why they have been slow to open up to 3rd party apps and slow to adopt ePub etc. And why its now rather difficult to pull up Kindle books via the Amazon API.

Another side to the co-opting is that unethical people could fool a ton of people rather quickly.

Network effects taking over

If the Kindle becomes truly social, customers, and some key influencers, would dictate what’s popular. This would mean -

1. Less leverage for Amazon with Publishers.  
2. A lot of randomness and uncertainty if you’re Amazon.  
3. Authors becoming much, much more powerful.

In a truly connected Kindle Social Network authors would rule as distribution would be free of control. Most middlemen would get wiped out.

Parts of the Kindle Economy independent of Amazon

1. We might end up with 4-5 reviewers that can take a good book and turn it into a bestseller with their endorsement.
2. We might have a company that accurately predicts bestsellers and becomes the place for finding new good books.

There would be a lot of people making money with Amazon getting no share.

Bandwidth Costs

1. Bandwidth costs would skyrocket. 
2. We would need a subscription option.

This would instantly reduce the value proposition of the Kindle.

Race to the Floor

1. A truly open social network lets desperate or suicidal content creators drive the value of their product to zero. 
2. The overall value of ebooks would fall precipitously.

Look at independent authors offering their books for free - If they got the chance they’d gladly do the same for the Kindle. 

We get a lottery scenario where  content creators would trade a decent livelihood for the 1 in a million chance of becoming the next J.K. Rowling.

Pros of an in-built Kindle Social Network.

Wisdom of the Crowds

1. Good books would spread faster than anyone can imagine. The closest comparison would be Facebook Apps that gain millions of users.  
2. Advertising and Marketing would be able to do little for bad quality books.

In effect customer choice would dictate success.

Instant Feedback

1. Publishers and Authors would have instant statistics.
2. Authors get quicker and cheaper feedback.
3. Time between reading a book and spreading the word would be much less.

Social Benefits – Making Friends

1. It literally would be taking millions of like-minded people and connecting them to each other.
2. Suddenly we have one big family, further divided into niche interest groups.

People might say it’s been done before – However, it’s not. You can hold a Kindle in one hand and take it everywhere with you and the screen is large enough.

It’s hard to figure out all the social benefits because we’ve never had a shared interest, a large enough screen, and portability built into one package.  

Social Benefits – Connection and Communication

1. Reading becomes much more social.
2. Much more social contact for people. 
3. Great for families, schools and businesses.

Closing Thoughts

What’s remarkable is the huge potential for disaster -

1. There might be a destruction of the value of ebooks.  
2. Unethical companies might destroy the eco-system or turn it into some twisted ’virtual book cover gifting’ system of exploiting people.
3. Perhaps the crowd is rather unintelligent?

It’s certainly going to be interesting.

The scope of the opportunity is definitely unparalleled. Amazon will probably end up owning the most powerful influencer ever seen in the book world, in addition to the whole platform on which books are sold and read.

Filed under: evolution, kindle Tagged: | kindle network effects, kindle social network