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https://theconversation.com/amazons-goodreads-builds-community-but-breeds-division-indie-rival-storygraph-is-playing-it-safe-and-gaining-ground-250523>
"Reading, once a largely private activity, has become more public and communal
with the emergence of book-centred social media spaces. But while the “BookTok”
and “Bookstagram” communities are often in the news, Goodreads, founded in 2006
and estimated to have 150 million users, was arguably the first digital network
to focus on reading.
Goodreads, which has been owned by Amazon since 2013, invites users to track
and share their reading – and their opinions – through ratings and reviews.
They can see what’s popular with other readers, and easily follow friends’
reading. For now, Goodreads is the leading platform for tracking and sharing
your reading.
But a serious competitor has emerged in The StoryGraph, a similar digital
platform created by software engineer Nadia Odunayo in 2019. It advertises
itself as “a fully-featured Amazon-free alternative to Goodreads”. An easy way
to import your Goodreads data is a prominent feature. The StoryGraph’s user
base was recently reported to be 3.8 million and it is healthily growing.
Political aversion to supporting Amazon has only grown since Trump’s
re-election (and Amazon owner Jeff Bezos’ attendance at his inauguration). This
is a leading reason users are abandoning Goodreads. But it’s not the whole
story."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
