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Kobo Has Banned US Customers From Its Site

Update: No one else is reporting the same issue, so it looks like a mountain has been made out of a molehill.

Ever since Kobo and Walmart first announced their partnership earlier this year I struggled to see how this would have a huge impact on ebook sales. Consumers don’t go to Walmart to buy books, much less ebooks, so this deal looked like it would have about as much impact on ebook sales as a wet fart in a hurricane.

I was checking Kobo’s site this morning after updating my review of the Inkbook Lumos, and I discovered how Kobo has adopted a Microsoft-ian or Apple-esque solution to guarantee that Walmart will get its share of ebook sales in the US.

When Microsoft wanted in on the web browser market in the mid 1990s, they forced PC makers to install Internet Explorer with Windows. And when Apple found it couldn’t compete in the ebook market, in early 2011 it forced competitors to change their apps in ways that hurt customers (this is why ebook apps on iOS no longer link to web stores).

Now Kobo has adopted a similar practice in order to drive sales to Walmart’s 3-week old ebookstore, and in doing so they have cut off any customers who won’t knuckle under.

When I visited Kobo’s site this morning and tried to look at its apps and ereaders, I kept getting kicked over to the Walmart site.

Kobo has now banned its US customers from accessing its website. No matter what we do, we are forcibly redirected to Walmart’s website.

And to add insult to injury, when I do try to log in with my Kobo account, I am forced to answer one of the image recognition Captchas that have begun to infest the web (oh hell no).

I have had an account with Kobo since 2010 which I can no longer access. I haven’t bought a lot of ebooks there, so this isn’t a huge loss, but it is still annoying as hell.

I’m sure someone is going to tell me there is a solution, but frankly, Kobo has thrown so many roadblocks in the way that they are making it clear that they don’t want my business.

Fine by me.

image by ell brown via Flickr

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Comments


Bruce September 11, 2018 um 10:49 am

What is it with ebook retailers? I try not to buy from Amazon because of their proprietary formats and "evil" trade practices, Apple’s DRM and app specific idiocy drove me away long ago and now Kobo is driving customers to Walmart of all places, home of the dubious labor relations.

Why oh why can’t the small local bookstore thrive in this market? Whenever one pops up I try my best to support it, but looking for alternate ebook stores is a chore in itself.


MikeJ September 11, 2018 um 10:59 am

Huh. I’m not having anything like the problems you are. I have noticed over the last few weeks that Kobo’s login screen defaults to a Walmart account, but Rakuten Kobo is still a prominent option. In fact, the only problem I had was trying to log out to re-test it. I also tried browsing some from an incognito window and never got diverted to Walmart.

Angela Korra’ti September 11, 2018 um 12:21 pm

I’m seeing the inability to log out too. I just confirmed that this morning, since I was still logged in on my browser and wanted to see if a) I could still make purchases, and b) whether if I’d be redirected to Walmart.com if I tried to log out. So far so good but I’m going to keep a stern eye on this.


Wes September 11, 2018 um 11:10 am

I can’t reproduce; though I have noticed the recent option to link a walmart account or login via a linked walmart account.


Purple lady September 11, 2018 um 11:51 am

I was able to log in using the Rakuten Kobo account, and I also got the image recognition Captchas. I was wondering if you only got that on your first login so I logged out, but when I logged in again I had to go through three different image recognition Captchas.


Patrick Cassidy September 11, 2018 um 11:59 am

The Captchas have been standard for me for months. And I haven’t noticed that I’m being directed to the malwart site, yet…


Angela Korra’ti September 11, 2018 um 12:14 pm

I’m deeply confused; I too am still able to buy things on the Kobo site just fine. I did get asked to log in with a Walmart account by default when I last tried to log in, but I had no issues logging in with my existing Kobo account.

I will keep an eye on this, though, and see if the behavior happens for me too. Kobo forcing U.S. customers to buy from the Walmart store instead would disgruntle me enough that it’d drive me over to finally buying the majority of my ebooks directly from Amazon.


Apparition September 11, 2018 um 12:30 pm

Well, that’s one way to ensure that Amazon remains the king of eBooks in the United States. I wonder what this means for U.S. Kobo customers with a VIP membership subscription.


Alex September 11, 2018 um 12:30 pm

Incorrect article. Kobo has only added support for the Walmart ebook store nothing else. No banning or anything ourageous.


Paul September 11, 2018 um 12:34 pm

Maybe Walmart is planning to buy them?


Angela Korra’ti September 11, 2018 um 12:43 pm

Oh and one other thing–as I’m an indie author I made a point of checking whether my titles are actually showing up on Walmart’s site now. They are. But I also have had it confirmed for me by a fellow indie with an actual walmart.com site that the purchase experience seems to be that Walmart is chucking customers over to kobo.com to do the actual purchase.

If that’s what Walmart.com is doing it makes _no_ sense to me that Kobo.com would be trying to chuck customers back over to Walmart.com. So I’m _really_ hoping Nate just triggered some sort of weird transitory glitch with the two sites trying to talk to one another.

I will be keeping a VERY sharp eye on this.

Angela Korra’ti September 11, 2018 um 2:26 pm

Blah, typo, sorry! I meant to say "a fellow indie with an actual walmart.com account".

But also wanted to add that as I’m an SDET (web tester, specifically) in my day job I’m also wondering about this from that perspective, too. I expect the tech departments at the two companies probably had to do a lot of work to link the two sites up. And it would not surprise me at all if their deployment is buggy on this initial rollout.


DaveMich September 11, 2018 um 12:56 pm

I’m not seeing it. Is it possible you have a cookie / login problem?


Suzanne September 11, 2018 um 1:43 pm

They haven’t caught with me yet though I never log out of their site.


Ana September 11, 2018 um 2:21 pm

I’ve just tried to login to my US Kobo account from Spain in my PC (I have more than one account from the time when Kobo was uncontrolly applying discount coupons), and I’m able to log in, I haven’t even been plagued with the stupid captcha, but the captcha pops up when I try to login from my Android tablet/phone (the same when I try to log in to my Spanish account)
I suppose it will get corrected soon, or the US costumers they had with original kobo accounts are going to get pissed. It doesn’t work like that in other countries, in Spain there’s a bookstore associated to Kobo, but they just link the kobo ebooks in their bookstore and you are redirected to kobo if you want to buy an ebook (I suppose with an affiliate link so they get something from the purchase), and I Fnac in Spain redirects you directly to Kobo (I suppose it will work similarly in France)


tired September 11, 2018 um 3:02 pm

False clickbait


Bob Hoskins September 11, 2018 um 3:17 pm

Nate you just wasted precious space on the internet with this article. The only thing that is true is that Rakuten Kobo and Walmart have partnered to sell e-books, audio books and e-readers. I think you need to call tech support or maybe you have a VPN tool running that is routing you through Amazons offices?


SheLuvs2Read September 11, 2018 um 6:48 pm

Not having any problems logging into Kobo.com from my US location


Fauxfurbezoar September 11, 2018 um 7:15 pm

No problems here. You would think a tech writer would do a better job researching what they write about…


soulspiritdebv September 11, 2018 um 7:40 pm

I’m not seeing it either. I can look at eReaders and order books the same as usual.


Kattz September 11, 2018 um 8:02 pm

I’m in Canada. I have a VPN in my router set to a US server. Everything in the house goes through it. It looks like I have a US IP address.

I had to do a factory reset on my original H20 (Kobo by FNAC, by the way) because the last update completely screwed it up.

I was offered logins for my Canadian Kobo account, the new US Walmart account and FNAC (a French bookstore).

I also have a Kobo Aura 2 which survived the update. It was setup before I got the VPN and it connects to the Canadian store just fine. That one is a regular North American Kobo.

As far as Kobo can see, I’m in the US and I’m connecting OK to everything.

Maybe try a VPN and use a Canadian server? It’s not such a bad idea to have a VPN for privacy/security reasons anyhow. You might want to try a factory reset just in case the last update did something weird to your device. I had to because I couldn’t connect to my wifi. The reset fixed that along with a few other issues.


Not buying it September 11, 2018 um 10:08 pm

This is not true at the moment. I can’t speak as to why you had this issue, or if you actually did,but as of right now, Kobo is definitely accessible for me. A US ebook reader without having to utilize any sort of proxy. No redirects to Walmart occurring whatsoever.


Andy September 11, 2018 um 10:35 pm

Extremely annoyed. This article is clearly wrong. It’s been 12 hours, The clickbait title is still up. There’s been no update from Nate apart from a line through one sentence at the end of the article.
I have no idea your beef with Captchas, that’s just confusing.
I’ve had no problem browsing Kobo eReaders or buying kobo ebooks in the last 3 weeks. I think you need to rethink your assumptions and apologize, dude.


Dawn September 11, 2018 um 11:05 pm

I’m in the US and I can sign into kobo just fine.


Brian Schaefer September 12, 2018 um 10:05 am

"…so this deal looked like it would have about as much impact on ebook sales as a wet fart in a hurricane."

Nate, don’t drink and write. It’s profoundly unprofessional.


Tim Middleton September 12, 2018 um 10:30 am

so wrong about Walmart not selling books – I guess you don’t get salesdata Nate.

Nate Hoffelder September 12, 2018 um 10:37 am

Mass-market retailers like Walmart are selling fewer and fewer books each year:
https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/bookselling/article/75760-print-sales-up-again-in-2017.html


Vb September 12, 2018 um 10:56 am

So is this article fake? Did I just waste my time reading?

Nate Hoffelder September 12, 2018 um 11:11 am

fake? No, I really did have trouble with Kobo’s site – I just went a little over the top with my description of it.

Victor Bow September 12, 2018 um 3:14 pm

got cha!


Kate September 12, 2018 um 4:34 pm

Just signed in to Kobobooks.com. No trouble at all.


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