Amazon’s discontinuation of the Comixology app when it merged with Amazon’s Kindle did not go down well with online comic book readers.
Fans opened the Comixology app on November 15, 2023 and saw a short message that read: “We are merging with Kindle. On December 4, we will discontinue the Comixology app. All your content is already on Kindle, including your current reading progress.” This news pushed many members of the manga community to take to X (formerly Twitter) to vent their frustration over the end of the once dedicated comic and manga reading platform.
The termination of the Comixology app due to the merger comes as consumers have less choice in how they catch up on their favorite content dedicated to anime and manga. Anime streaming service HIDIVE has also announced the termination of their service in most non-English speaking regions as of December 14, 2023. Meanwhile, Crunchyroll’s manga distribution service will end on December 11. Furthermore, Comixology’s move to Kindle resulted in many users losing their books due to errors or incompatibility. User
Amazon purchased Comixology in June 2014 and has since made many changes to further integrate the service into its Kindle products. An official statement from Comixology General Manager Jeff DiBartolomeo revealed that 93% of comic book, graphic novel and manga customers are reading via Kindle and the Kindle app, adding that “Kindle reading is where the majority Our customers have been coming for years.” While this suggests that Comixology’s demise was inevitable, moves like the closure of the Comixology website in February 2022 have almost certainly accelerated things.
DiBartolomeo’s statement ends by outlining the goal of making people “lifelong fans of comic books, graphic novels or comic books” through a focus on the Kindle app. Fans are hoping the migration issues can be resolved and given the current lack of viable alternatives, these issues can be resolved as quickly as possible.
Source: X (formerly Twitter), The Beat