Comixology was acquired in 2014, and since then Amazon has tried various solutions to keep this digital comics reading service alive. In the end, Comixology will close and be fully integrated into Amazon.
What is Comixology?
Available via an app for smartphones and tablets, as well as from the service's website, Comixology offers a wide selection of comics - mainly in English.
Backed by partnerships with a number of major publishers (Image Comics, Dark Horse, Valiant Comics, Archie Comics, etc.), the platform offers hundreds of thousands of titles in its streaming catalog.
The end of Comixology
Amazon has been trying to fully integrate Comixology's offering into its Amazon Kindle bookshop since 2021. But, after several unsuccessful attempts, this solution did not seem to have been chosen.
However, Amazon has just announced that Comixology applications will no longer work from December 4, 2023.
The entire catalog will be transferred to the Amazon Kindle bookstore. For readers who have comics in their account, these volumes will be automatically transferred to their Kindle library and thus accessible both on the site and on Kindle e-readers.
For smartphone and tablet users, they will now need to use the Kindle app available on Android and iOS. It will be necessary to use the same login details on the Kindle app as those used on the old Comixology app. (see details here)
Amazon Fire tablet users will also benefit from this change, as everything will be accessible in the Kindle section.
This does not come without a drawback, as it will be necessary to download the comics again on the Kindle application.
To simplify navigation, it is possible to filter titles and books owned in your library using the "Comics & Manga" filter in the app.
With this merger, you should now have more choice in the titles available with the Kindle subscription and Prime Reading (for Amazon Prime subscribers). Of course, you'll have to judge for yourself.
What strategy for Amazon?
Amazon is looking to unite users of its digital reading services by offering more choice to comic book and ebook readers.
Everyone will be able to access the entire catalog, and this should give readers more choice.
But it's also a way of standing out from other reading services. The aim is to attract more people to the Kindle ecosystem, to the detriment of competing offers from Kobo (with Kobo Plus).
We'll see in the coming months whether this decision is the right one, and whether current Comixology users will migrate to the Kindle application without any problems...
For the moment we don't know what will happen to Comixology's employees and whether they will join Amazon's teams.
In any case, the "Comixology" brand is well and truly finished.
