Oyster电子书订阅服务即将走入历史

Oyster，作为全球最知名的电子订阅服务商之一，被誉为图书界的Netflix，用户每月只需花费9.95美元即可无限制的阅读。创始人Eric Stromberg周一在博客宣布关闭其电子书订阅的服务。Google把其服务核心人才纳入麾下，是Google的间接收购？还是电子订阅服务无法突破的瓶颈？

 

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

subscription 订阅

reluctant 不情愿的

plateau 停滞期

straightforward 明确的

genres 流派

vigorously 蓬勃地

 

阅读马上开始，建议您计算一下阅读整篇文章所用的时间，对照下方的参考值就可以评估出您的英文阅读水平。

Ebook service Oyster to close after resistance from publishers（354words）

By Henry Mance,Media correspondent

 

Oyster,one of the best-known ebook subscription services,is to close,highlighting the difficulties facing start-ups in the publishing sector.

 

Oyster's business model was similar to that of Netflix and Spotify — charging users $9.95 a month for unlimited access to more than 1m ebooks. It raised $17m in venture financing since 2012,and said it wanted to be the “Amazon of the next 10 years”.

 

However,publishers have been reluctant to make their best-selling titles available on subscription platforms,calculating that the most loyal readers would pay less. Oyster had also faced competition from Amazon,which last July launched its own ebook subscription service,Kindle Unlimited.

 

Oyster “will be taking steps to sunset the existing Oyster service over the next several months,” the company said in a blogpost. It said it had “made incredible progress” towards the goal of “a better way to read on mobile”. “We believe more than ever that the phone will be the primary reading device globally over the next decade,” the blog said.

 

Oyster's key staff,including chief executive Eric Stromberg,will join Google,industry website Re/code reported. It is unclear whether that forms part of a bigger publishing push by the search company.

 

The move comes after the growth in ebooks has begun to plateau in key markets. “This is not a straightforward digital switchover,” wrote analysts at Enders in a recent report on the UK market. “In books what we're seeing is a split in the market,where some genres and behaviours quickly transition to digital while others remain largely unaffected. In both cases the share of sales on ebook have largely stabilised.”

 

However,Enders added that the publishing sector needed to address the decline in the time that people are spending reading books. “It is impossible to overstate how important it is that the industry innovates vigorously in the next two to three years,” it said.

 

Remaining ebook subscription platforms include Kindle Unlimited and Scribd. Kindle Unlimited charges $9.99 a month for access to 1m ebooks and thousands of audiobooks. Scribd,which also contains a catalogue of user-uploaded documents,charges $8.99 a month for its service.

 

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

 

1.Which industry is difficult,especially for start-ups?

A.retail

B.publishing

C.print

D.service

[1] 答案

 

2.How can users get books after paying $9.95?

A.borrow 1m books

B.read online

C.share with the author

D.select in local library

[2] 答案

 

3.What will be the primary reading device globally in 2025 by Oyster's prediction?

A.iPad

B.kindle

C.computer

D.phone

[3] 答案

 

4.What is important for book business by in Enders' view?

A.reduce prices

B.corporate merger

C.industry innovates

D.technical innovation

[4] 答案

 

[1]答案：B.publishing
解释：Oyster的关闭，显示了新创公司在出版业所面临的困难。

[2]答案：B.read online
解释：用户获得的是电子书服务。

[3]答案：D.phone
解释：Oyster在博客上预测，未来十年手机将普遍成为人们主要的阅读工具。

[4]答案：C.industry innovates
解释：行业分析公司Enders指出，产业大力创新是非常重要的。