The Future of Lending

There is no doubt that the launch of Amazon's kindle and the army of e-readers that followed have changed the way we read. Now more than ever people are reading again. The book market is on the rise again and the opportunities to make some dollar in the book market are ripe for the picking. But whilst the book market is on the rise the fate of libraries is looking bleak. The libraries in the UK have faced a dual attack. Not only has the government cut funding for new resources and new books but the pure simplicity of e-readers in simply clicking and downloading to read (no trips out the door and many books are competitively priced) has sealed the fate of many libraries which are becoming out of date and behind the times. 

 It would be completely understandable to assume that the days of lending books are coming to an end but instead a new business opportunity has arrived and there are those beginning to embrace it. Kindle has planned to introduce a lending scheme in which users can lend an e-book to a friend for two weeks. Whilst this is an amicable attempt at replicating the lending from friend to friend of physical p-books it is unlikely to increase profits on a large scale. Another company, however, has embraced the concept of lending in an entirely different way. The venture of Oyster could prove to be incredibly successful in terms of changing the way we read and the way books are lent. 

Oyster offers the e-book equivalent of companies like net-flix and lovefilm. The customer pays a set fee each month and is free to borrow and read as many titles as he or she wishes. The venture is still in its teething stages and is only offered to the public on an invitation basis but eventually it will go global and open a world of literally adventures to the masses. Whilst Oyster books have such an original and lucrative idea there are a couple of problems which may affect initial profit. Firstly the program is currently only available on the iphone and ipod touch. There is no platform for ipads or any other form of e-reader with a larger screen. Few people read on their iphones and ipods because the screens are too small. They provide entertainment enough to dip in and out of books whilst on the tube or moving from A to B but there are few people who would sit on the sofa at home with an iphone simply for the purpose and pleasure of reading. 

 Secondly given that Oyster is at its very beginning the number of titles it offers is limited. The site claims that Oyster offers over 100,000 titles, however, in the grand scheme of all things book related 100,000 is a garden pond in comparison with the vast ocean of books available today. Users of Oyster are likely not to find the book they want to read and end up settling for something else - not the best means of keeping customers interested. Having said that the program is in its initial stages and as more publishers join the venture the variety of reading material to be offered will grow immensely. 

 Oyster has the potential to be a fore runner in changing the way we think about lending and borrowing books. It has the potential to be extremely successful. Is this the future of lending? Only time will tell. 

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