Heightened Awareness Re: Amazon Books
It no doubt was in the works ahead of the recent flap over Amazon and POD, but the flap raises the awareness of what could be construed as competition. And – why not? Competition is good. (If it really exists).
Stefanie Olsen tells us;
Eco Amazon.com rival brings in millions
“Better World Books, an online retailer that resells used books and donates some of the proceeds to fund global literacy projects, has brought in its first outside investment to branch out into publishing, book rentals, and international do-gooding.”
Just has a “feel good” way about it, doesn’t it? Donations to global literacy projects?
“The 5-year-old company said Monday that it raised $4.5 million in its first round of financing led by Good Capital, an institutional investor that specializes in social entrepreneurship. That money included $2 million from a group of 18 private investors, whose names were undisclosed.”
Hmmm – social entrepreneurship eh? Even that has a “friendlier” tone.
“Like a lot of start-ups, if we want to continue to accelerate our growth and scale, we want to invest in new business units,” said David Murphy, CEO of Better World Books. Murphy said that the company plans to use the money to improve its own Web site and efforts to bring in new books. But future projects include expanding overseas, building up a young book-publishing division, and offering a book-rental service from its Web site.”
“Accelerate our growth and scale.” “Improve.” “Expand.” “Bring in new.” “Building up a young division.” Yeah, sounds like competition…
