Editor’s note: This article was first published in September 2010, shortly after Libranda’s July 2010 launch; the ebook market, prices and piracy problems described are from that time, and Amazon only opened its Spanish store in 2011.
When someone has a business idea that is already a business run by their competitors, they must be ready to make their service better, or at least similar, but never worse. We are going to look at this in the specific case of libranda.com, a business idea born in Spain that faces very tough competition as a business: Amazon.
Libranda.com was launched as a business barely two months ago, on 15 July 2010. It announced its launch through many advertising outlets, to the point that it was not short of visitors in its first months, and it did that part brilliantly.
Some people are already talking about a total failure, but it is too early for that verdict, since there is still time for them to improve, and they clearly need to.
When you compete against a giant like Amazon, you have to be very well prepared for the art of war in business, because you won’t be short of battles, bearing in mind that Amazon is known by more than 500 million people while Libranda, as of today, is probably known by no more than a million.
Libranda spotted a business opportunity in the expected disappearance of the paper book and the imminent arrival of the ebook (electronic book). As we all know, ebooks are easy to get without buying them, since they can be downloaded from various sources that are considered pirate sites.
Libranda wanted to prevent this by adding an anti-piracy system, but far from achieving that, it has made its ebooks hard to read on many ebook readers, and on top of that its security code has already been cracked by hackers, so its books can be pirated anyway.
Libranda.com’s second mistake was price. You cannot arrive last and charge more for the same service your competitor already offers after years in the market. Even so, they are probably considering lowering the prices of some ebooks.
The third mistake was the download quality and the steps you have to follow to download a book. It overlooked the fact that some users value simplicity and ease when buying something for which, in some cases, they will pay roughly the same as for a traditional paper book.
So here is one more example of how you can develop a business idea by taking advantage of a growing market. But you must never make the mistake of allowing yourself to charge a little more for a service in which you are still a beginner compared with your competitors.
That said, I didn’t much like seeing Spaniards themselves celebrating Libranda’s failure, because I believe that, as a Spanish company, it deserves support. I wish them the best of luck and hope they fix these shortcomings because, after all, they are entrepreneurs up against a better-prepared giant.
Further reading
- How to find business ideas
- Business ideas related to services for companies
- 5 ways to increase your business’s sales
- An entrepreneur’s mindset
Featured image: Remi Mathis, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
