Kobo vs Scribd
January 30, 2026 | Author: Maria Lin
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Kobo is Amazon's Kindle's main competitor in the ebook market. It's a Canadian company that sells ebooks, audiobooks and e-readers. Kobo offers free reading apps for Windows and Mac computers, as well as Android and iOS smartphones - all apps can sync seamlessly. You can subscribe to the Kobo Plus or Kobo Plus Listening service for unlimited access to audiobooks and ebooks, or purchase books individually. Kobo's library offers 3 million ebooks, including new releases, bestsellers, and free classics.
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Scribd is the world's largest digital library, where readers can discover books and written works of all kinds on the Web or any mobile device and publishers and authors can find a voracious audience for their work. Launched in March of 2007 and based in San Francisco California, more than 40 million books and documents have been contributed to Scribd by the community. Scribd content reaches and audience of 80 million people around the world every month.
Kobo vs Scribd in our news:
2026. Kobo VIP pricing is doubling very soon
Kobo is sending emails to customers whose VIP subscriptions are expiring, informing them that the price will increase from $10 to $20 per year, with no additional benefits. Kobo VIP members receive exclusive benefits, such as a 10% discount on ebooks and audiobooks, exclusive sales and giveaways for VIP members and a free ebook each year. Members also receive double Kobo Super Points for every ebook and audiobook purchase and up to 10x points on bonus days. The actual price increase appears to go into effect in April 2026, so new customers can purchase an annual VIP subscription at the old price until then.
2020. Kobo e-readers now include a Notes icon for quick access
Kobo has issued a new firmware update 4.25.15875, that is being pushed out to all e-readers, except for thee Kobo Mini. They have added a new Chinese dictionary and users can now delete annotations, or tap the edit button to change it. If you have a Kobo Sleep Cover for the Forma or Libra, the device will now sleep properly when the case is closed. Besides in ebook, an icon is displayed in the margin for all annotations. Tapping the icon displays the notes for the annotation in a popup. You can delete the annotations, or tap the edit button to change it. The icon is only displayed if the margins are wide enough to show it.
2018. Kobo app gets new comic viewer
The Kobo app for iOS has just received a major update for those who enjoy digital comics. It now features a new comic viewer that lets you read horizontally or vertically, navigate by page or in a grid view and access your comics before they’re fully downloaded. There is also a new animated page-turn engine that allows you to glimpse what’s on the next page. Kobo’s comic selection isn’t extensive; most of their content comes from their Writing Life self-publishing platform. They lack comics from major publishers like DC, Image, or Marvel, so it's surprising that Kobo is expanding comic book support given the limited scope of their catalog.
2015. Kobo launched free ebook platform for Southwest Airlines passengers
Kobo introduces an e-reading platform for Southwest Airlines passengers, the latest in a flurry of separate initiatives to put ebooks in closer reach of travelers. The platform offers approximately 140 free ebooks (a figure Kobo plans to grow), of which about 85% are full-text editions, while the remainder are samples of titles readers can buy after landing. Kobo’s in-flight e-reading platform represents another push toward curated ebook discovery as publishers and retailers strive to deliver the right content to the right readers at the right time. The move also falls in line with efforts by Kobo’s parent company Rakuten to expand its global ebook business, a key growth area the company identified earlier this spring when it acquired the library distributor OverDrive.
