Scribd Raises $22M for Its Subscription E-Book Service | Hacker News Reader

Scribd Raises $22M for Its Subscription E-Book Service

techcrunch.com

33 pointskernelv23 comments

Because of the horrible usability experience, I've felt nothing but unadulterated seething hatred for Scribd ever since the first time I was forced to use them. I hope this venture fails, catastrophically.

And they pretty much just "resell" infringing content. Scribd "cribd" as in stolen seems like a rung or two below quora and experts-exchange.

Huh, didn't know Scribd had changed focus to become an E-book service. My impression of Scribd has long been that it's a piracy-pdf site.

Might you have said the same thing about YouTube?

YouTube made it easier to upload and watch short videos. Much easier. Scribd is an automatic Close-Tab for me. A usability nightmare.

I don't want to subscribe to Amazon's service, and have very little expectations for Scribd.

I'm amazed that the investors doubled down on such a poor end user experience, but I guess they are seeing good paying customer growth. Paying customers growth will fade away unless the end user experience is fixed.

> I'm amazed that the investors doubled down on such a poor end user experience

Sunk cost fallacy.

My impression has always been that it was a service to make PDFs less useful.

The only thing I've seen Scribd used for is embedding legal filings on various news and e-rag sites. Getting into legitimate publishing distribution is going to be tough. Licensing content is a pain; and once the sweetheart deals expire, there go the profit margins.

Pretty misleading to say "Any Device" when the service doesn't work with ebook readers, arguably the best devices for reading ebooks.

Does anyone know of a subscription service for physical books? Becoming enchanted once again witb being able to turn an actual page. Looking for a Netflix of books

I'm really not sure if you're serious, but have you considered a library?

This is like asking me if I've considered going to a department store instead of using Amazon. Yes, I'm aware of that thing called a library. But I want the books to come to me and I want a wider selection than my local library might carry.

You can typically request books that they don't carry, which they can get for you.

That's a good point, thanks! Still, nothing would top getting the books to just show up in my mailbox....

Libraries offer e-books, https://www.overdrive.com/

I think its called a library.

I want the books to come to me.

http://www.booksfree.com works for paperbacks.

Thanks!!

Isn't Amazon kind of already eating their lunch on this one?

I haven't used amazon's service, but everything i've heard about it is complaints. it sounds like there's plenty of room for competition.

isnt oyster doing that as well?

Yup. And there's also 24symbols.com

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