In the world of books and reading, few names loom as large as Amazon and Goodreads. Amazon has long been the dominant force in bookselling, with a market share estimated at over 80% for ebooks and 50% for print books in the US. Goodreads, meanwhile, has become the go-to community for readers around the world to track their reading, share reviews, and discover new books. But what many readers may not know is that these two behemoths are actually part of the same company. That‘s right, Amazon owns Goodreads and has since 2013.
In this article, we‘ll take a deep dive into the history of Amazon‘s acquisition of Goodreads, how it has impacted readers and authors, and what it means for the future of social reading. As an expert in retail and consumer behavior, I‘ll share some insider perspective on why Amazon bought Goodreads and how it fits into their long-term strategy. And as a picky reader myself, I‘ll highlight how the integration (or lack thereof) between the two platforms affects our experience as book lovers.
A Brief History of Amazon‘s Goodreads Acquisition
Goodreads was founded in 2006 by Otis Chandler and Elizabeth Khuri Chandler as a "social cataloging" website for books. The idea was simple yet powerful: allow readers to keep track of the books they read, review them, and see what their friends were reading. It quickly caught on, and by 2011 the site had surpassed 5 million users. It was around this time that Amazon started to take notice.
In March 2013, Amazon announced that it had acquired Goodreads for an undisclosed sum, later reported to be $150-200 million. At the time, Goodreads had 16 million users and was growing rapidly. In a statement about the acquisition, Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos praise Goodreads as "a great fit with our passion for reinventing reading."
The move made a lot of sense for Amazon strategically. By buying Goodreads, they gained access to a huge and highly engaged community of readers, not to mention a wealth of data on their reading habits and preferences. This data could help inform everything from book recommendations to publishing decisions. And with Kindle ebooks already making up a big chunk of Amazon‘s book sales, integrating Goodreads could help drive even more customers to the Kindle ecosystem.
How Goodreads Has Grown Under Amazon
In the eight years since the acquisition, Goodreads has continued to grow at an impressive rate. Here are some key stats that illustrate the scale of the community today:
| Goodreads Stats (as of 2021) | Value |
|---|---|
| Total members | 90 million |
| Total books cataloged | 2.6 billion |
| Total reviews | 90 million |
| Unique monthly visitors | 50 million |
| Annual Choice Awards votes | 5.6 million |
Sources: Goodreads, SimilarWeb
Clearly, even under Amazon‘s ownership, Goodreads has cemented its position as the world‘s largest community of readers online. But it‘s not just the scale of the community that makes it so valuable to Amazon. It‘s also the level of engagement and influence those users have.
According to a 2018 survey by The Bookseller, Goodreads reviews were the most important factor (besides price) in book purchase decisions for frequent readers. And a 2019 study published in PLOS ONE found that books with a higher average rating on Goodreads also tended to sell more copies on Amazon, even after controlling for factors like publicity and marketing. In other words, what happens on Goodreads directly impacts Amazon‘s bottom line as a bookseller.
As author and publishing consultant Jane Friedman explained in The Hot Sheet, "Goodreads is one of the most important online book communities — its members are avid readers who write book reviews and make recommendations to a highly engaged community. For many authors and publishers, it is a key source of discovery and word-of-mouth marketing."
The Benefits and Pitfalls of Amazon-Goodreads Integration
So how exactly has Goodreads changed since becoming an Amazon company? The short answer is: not a whole lot, at least from the user perspective. Goodreads still looks and functions much the same as it always has. You can still use it to track your reading, write reviews, and connect with other readers without ever interacting with Amazon itself.
However, there are now more points of integration between the two platforms for those who want a more seamless experience. You can sign in to Goodreads using your Amazon credentials and easily import all the Kindle and print books you‘ve purchased on Amazon onto your Goodreads shelves. When you write a review on Goodreads, you have the option to automatically cross-post it to Amazon. And for authors, there are now more robust tools for promoting books and interacting with readers across both platforms.
These integrations can be handy for readers who buy most of their books on Amazon and want to keep their library synced. They‘re also valuable to authors who want to maximize their exposure to Amazon‘s massive customer base. Indie author David Gaughran has described Goodreads as "significantly more important than Twitter/Facebook" for promoting books online.
However, the Amazon-Goodreads relationship isn‘t without its potential downsides. When the acquisition was first announced, many Goodreads users expressed concerns about their data privacy and Amazon‘s increasing control over online book discovery. A 2020 study on "Amazonification" from the Open Markets Institute warned about the risks of having a major retailer like Amazon control so much of the book data and discourse online.
"Amazon‘s control of Goodreads has given it profound influence over what gets read, recommended, and sold in the publishing industry," the authors write. "This allows Amazon to steer readers toward bestsellers and its own imprints…potentially threatening the diversity of ideas in the book marketplace and making it harder for new authors to break through."
Goodreads has tried to assuage some of these concerns by maintaining its independence within Amazon. Co-founder Otis Chandler said in 2019 that "on a day-to-day operating level, we run the company separately from Amazon." The site has also continued to support a diverse range of voices and allow for critical reviews of Amazon and Kindle products.
The Future of Social Reading
As reading increasingly moves online and Amazon further expands its dominance of the publishing industry, the role of social communities like Goodreads will likely only grow in importance. Readers are always hungry for ways to discover their next favorite book, and there‘s still no better tool for that than seeing what other avid readers recommend.
"Social book discovery is a growing force that will continue to shape how books get attention and break out," publishing futurist Thad McIlroy wrote in 2021. Citing data from Book Riot, he noted that "almost 100% [of online book sales] are influenced by online book discovery including retailer websites, review blogs, social media, and Goodreads."
Goodreads itself has also shown more interest in using its platform and data to aid in book discovery and publishing. In 2020, it launched a new "Goodreads Deals" email newsletter promoting ebook discounts personalized to each user‘s reading tastes. The company also recently started sharing its review and engagement data with publishers to help them with trend forecasting and acquisition decisions.
While this deeper integration with the Amazon machine may be inevitable, here‘s hoping Goodreads can maintain the lively community spirit and diversity of voices that made it so beloved by readers in the first place. As a lifelong book lover and Goodreads user myself, I‘m grateful to have a place to obsessively track my reading and get great recommendations from fellow readers around the world. Let‘s keep the social in social reading!
