> Amazon hasn’t shared its exact reason for the change (the company’s statement to publishers is here), but one obvious explanation is that relatively few people are buying these subscriptions and it doesn’t make financial sense to continue to support them. Instead, Amazon wants publishers to add their content to its $9.99/month digital subscription program, Kindle Unlimited, which includes a bunch of magazines
I'm pretty confident that "Amazon wants publishers to add their content to Kindle Unlimited" is the ONLY reason, and that it wouldn't matter how much revenue was generated through direct payments to publishers. This is the Way, after all, of modern platform monopoly. It's highly profitable.
The more obvious explanation is that a lot of the Kindle team were let go in the recent layoffs, and there now isn't enough people to run the service so everything non-essential is going to shift people over to keeping the lights on (the same is happening to the remnants of the Comixology team).
This is to consolidate offerings, and drive more money to Amazon and less to 3rd parties. Just like retail, and skills. How is this not under investigation.
I'm pretty confident that "Amazon wants publishers to add their content to Kindle Unlimited" is the ONLY reason, and that it wouldn't matter how much revenue was generated through direct payments to publishers. This is the Way, after all, of modern platform monopoly. It's highly profitable.