By the end of the year, Amazon will have fully acquired comiXology. ComiXology is a virtual comic book store that sells one of the best performing mobile applications out there.
This virtual comic book that is Amazon’s new acquisition shows how the comic book business has changed. In the old days, a comic book company like Marvel or DC would publish a comic book. The comic book company would pay a distributor to distribute to comic book stores or new stands. The comic book store or news stand gets the comic book and somebody soon gets to read about the adventures of Batman and Robin.
The Internet has changed the way that comic book companies do business. The comic book company can make a digital form of the comic book and sell it on their website. DC Comics only sells digital forms of Batman Beyond 2.0 and Justice League Beyond 2.0. Instead of selling it themselves, the comic company could email it to comiXology and let them worry about it. The advantage of a company like comiXology is the fact that they can also distribute it on a mobile phone.
A digital comic book is a simulated version of a comic book that a person would read when they were a child. The comic book fits onto a computer screen and a person changes pages by clicking. A person could zoom in on everything so he or she does not miss any detail. A digital comic book usually has fewer pages than a regular comic since it is harder to read on the screen. A real comic book is usually 22 pages while a digital version is usually about 15.
If a person has bought a virtual comic book, he or she has probably bought it from comiXology, Amazon’s new acquisition. This virtual comic book store has about 50, 000 titles on its virtual book racks. These titles come from about 120 publishers.com
Amazon’s new acquisition started out as a virtual online book community. The comic book community began a website that showed listings of comic books on a weekly basis. A comic book listing shows when a comic book coming out. The website became a giant cybernetic comic book store. A person can purchase comiXology’s mobile applications so he or she can read their favorite comic books or graphic novels on Kindle, Android, iOS or any operating system that a person has on a mobile. In 2013, it was one of two non-gaming applications that reached the top 20 of Apple mobile applications.
This digital comic store has recently entered into the field of comic book publishing. A comic book creator can now sell virtual and actual versions of their comic books on this e-commerce website. ComiXologt could end up creating new comic book companies that could compete against DC and Marvel. This publishing part of this comic book store is probably another reason that Amazon is buying it.
Amazon is acquiring comiXology, a company that distributes thousands of digital comic books through the Internet and mobile phones. Amazon is buying it for its mobile apps and its comic book publishing possibilities.
By Tom Clark
Sources:
Escapist Magazine
Sun Times
IGN
