Kobo On The Rise

(Forbes) Kobo is the major player in the ebook world that you’ve never heard of.

You’ve probably never heard of it because in the U.S. it is thought to have something like a 2% or 3% share in the growing ebook market. In Canada, however, where the company is based, it’s thought to be the market-share leader. It was acquired near the end of last year byRakuten, a company considered the “Amazon of Japan,” and hasstarted to build an ebook business there  (for what it’s worth: a hard-to-crack market that isn’t promising for ebook publishersdespite being one of the largest economies in the world with a very literate and technological population). In other countries, like theUK, South Africa and New Zealand, Kobo has a presence and is one of the only international players. Kobo is now in more than a dozen countries and is aggressively adding more.

This little upstart from Canada is trying to compete with the likes of Amazon,Google, Apple and Barnes & Noble....