![]() ![]() … They can either choose to exit the market or choose to compete or choose to collaborate." Collaboration can mean joining an ecosystem (such as Amazon) or a platform (such as hotels joining Airbnb Inc.). "It comes down to compete or collaborate. They can: go head to head exit a market, such as the United States or join an ecosystem, such as Amazon, or a platform, such as Airbnb. ![]() The choice Kobo made was one of three directions that companies can go when deciding how to compete against e-commerce giants, says Berkeley Warburton, a managing director who leads Advanced Customer Strategy with Accenture Strategy in Canada.Ĭompanies going up against larger competitors have three choices, according to consulting firm Accenture. gave us a chance to build market share in those other territories." That's what led us into Europe, Australia, New Zealand and Asia. "Instead, we went to every other country where it appeared that e-books had a chance of becoming a significant category. It was the home turf of Amazon, Apple, Google, Barnes and Noble – it seemed like everyone was going to focus their resources on winning that one market," Mr. expansion is natural, given our language and cultural affinity and – for now at least – our membership in the North American Free Trade Agreement. For many mid-sized companies of Kobo's size (it has about 350 employees, mostly in Toronto), U.S. "First, we didn't put all our emphasis on expanding into the U.S.," Mr. Kobo built its technology and back-office operations on the assumption that the company was going to be operating internationally. This led to Kobo making tactical decisions that have given its e-books strong sales in 22 countries, with sales more or less evenly distributed between Asia, North and South America and Europe. We felt that with e-books, the market would be dominated by between three and five companies worldwide – and we wanted to be one of them." "We could see that those barriers were probably going to dissolve in the face of digital distribution. "When we started, Indigo was the biggest bookseller in Canada, Barnes and Noble was the biggest in the United States, FNAC was the largest in France," Mr. It's hard to remember now, but the picture was far from clear back then. We believed that this was going to be the first time that the book business wasn't going to be a national business, but an international one." "When we started Kobo seven years ago, we could see that the market for books was about to change," Mr. Its headquarters is in Toronto’s west-end Liberty Village. Kobo, with about 350 employees, chose not to focus solely on the United States, normally a natural for many midsized Canadian companies. "For three quarters of the latter companies, the number one ingredient for success was having an international growth strategy that's integrated into the firm's overall business strategy," EDC said. EDC's white paper looked at more than 300 businesses, half of them slow-growing and half of them growing quickly. "One of the best ways to get bigger is through international trade," Export Development Canada said in a 2014 white paper. Instead of concentrating on sales in Canada, "we leveraged being Canadian as a way to international success," Mr. "We decided to not just focus on the Canadian market," he says.Īccording to Booknet Canada, which tracks the publishing business, the market share of e-books in Canada compared with sales of all formats of books fell in 2016 to 16.9 per cent, compared with 19 per cent the year before. The first key decision Kobo made was to position itself as an international business, based in Toronto, Mr. Kobo’s e-books and e-readers have been competing directly with Amazon’s Kindle and with Apple ever since Kobo was founded. ![]()
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