Why was Book Subscription Service, Oyster, closed down?

News that Scribd has hit 1 million paid subscribers, and an annual revenue rate of $100 million a year, brings up some very interesting questions

1. If Scribd is making $100 million a year, and has 1 million paid subscribers, how much is Kindle Unlimited making?
   1.  Our post on How Big is Kindle Unlimited? will address this in the near future
2. Why did Google buy and shut down Oyster, the Book Subscription Service for Apple?

Let’s start with Question 2

Why did Google buy and shut down Oyster, the Book Subscription Service for Apple Devices?

Oyster was the first book subscription service. It was on Apple devices. It had books from the Big 5 Publishers. It was supposedly doing well and also looking for more funding

It had proven a market for book subscription services existed. It was the leader. It had partnerships with the Big 5 Publishers, who have the majority of well established authors. Everything was perfect

Then Google swooped in and bought it

And promptly closed it down

The absurdity of this brings up a lot of questions

1. Google makes nearly all its revenue from Search Advertising. It has been trying to find a second big source of income. So far, none of its other businesses are big money makers (there are claims that YouTube is slightly profitable, but no one knows for sure)
2. Google could certainly benefit from a second big source of income (something other than advertising). Did Google just not realize that Oyster could become a billion a year business?
   1. If Scribd can get to $100 million annual revenue, after having raised less than $50 million, then with Google’s backing, Oyster could surely have gotten to $1 Billion annual revenue
   2. Given that Scribd is profitable, Oyster too could have hit profitability
3. If Scribd (which was a distant third in book subscriptions) has grown to 1 million paid subscribers, and 100 million annual revenues, and is break even
   1. Then how big could Oyster have grown if Google had not shut it down?
   2. How much could Oyster have been making if Google had not shut it down?
4. Why would Google shut down the FIRST book subscription service on Apple devices, even though it was growing fast and was the leader
   1. Surely, Google’s failed attempts to catch up with Facebook (Google+, which is now permanently closed down) have taught it that being first to a market is very valuable
5. Why would Google shut down the leading subscription service in an emerging market and give Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited the entire market to itself?

All of it makes no sense

If you acquire a company that has found a new emerging market, is the leader in it, and is growing fast, you do not shut it down

Oyster Wikipedia Article

Oyster Fortune Article on Possible Plans