OverDrive, Inc.

Last updated

OverDrive, Inc.
Company typePrivate
Industry Digital distribution, eBooks, library services, school services, software and app development, digital content management, publishing
Founded1986 (1986) in Cleveland, Ohio (36 years)
Headquarters
Cleveland, Ohio
,
United States
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
Steve Potash (Pres and CEO)
Products Libby, Kanopy, Sora
Owner KKR (2020–present)
Website www.overdrive.com

OverDrive, Inc. is a worldwide digital distributor of eBooks, audiobooks, online magazines and streaming video titles. The company provides digital rights management and download fulfillment services for publishers, public libraries, K-12 schools, colleges, universities, corporations, legal industries, and formerly retailers.

Contents

The largest commercial provider of ebooks, audiobooks, and other digital content such as streaming movies in North America, a 2023 report estimated its market share as perhaps being upwards of 90%. [1] :11 OverDrive operates the ebook and audiobook app Libby, the Video streaming app Kanopy and the educational app Sora.

History

OverDrive was founded in 1986 [2] and originally converted analog media to digital formats, such as interactive diskettes and CD-ROMs. [3] In 2000, the company opened Content Reserve, an online eBook and downloadable audiobook repository from which its distribution business developed. [4]

Before entering the library market, OverDrive distributed eBooks to online stores. In 2002, OverDrive was selected as the distributor of HarperCollins’ eBooks to the publisher's online retail stores. [5] OverDrive launched web stores for Harlequin Enterprises in 2005. [6] In 2008, OverDrive announced that it would provide download services for Borders Books. [7]

On September 21, 2011, OverDrive began supporting Kindle public library book borrowing. [8]

In 2012, the company announced a series of service upgrades, including a browser-based eReader, and audiobook streaming, which enabled access to audiobooks via the company’s OverDrive Media Console app. The company also developed a media station, which allows users to browse their library's digital collection on touchscreen monitors and internet workstations. An API is available which allows developers to integrate OverDrive content into various apps and platforms. [9] The company announced a partnership with LexisNexis to provide the LexisNexis Digital Library, a customized eLending platform for the legal library market. [10] The company announced a partnership with Nokia to launch Nokia Reading, an eReading app and service for Nokia's Lumia 900, 800, 710, and 610 Windows Phone devices. [11] [ non-primary source needed ]

In 2014, OverDrive completed its headquarters in the Cleveland suburb of Garfield Heights, Ohio. [12]

In April 2015, Rakuten bought OverDrive for $410 million, with the deal set to close in April 2015. [13] OverDrive CEO Steve Potash remained in his position and OverDrive kept its name while operating under Rakuten USA. [14] [15]

In 2019, it was reported that private equity firm KKR would be purchasing OverDrive from Rakuten. [13] The estimate market value was $775 million in 2019. [1] :11 The acquisition was finalized in June 2020. [16]

In June 2020, RBMedia sold its library assets to OverDrive; this includes RBDigital, an app and service for the distribution of digital content. RBMedia and OverDrive are both owned by KKR, with KKR's OverDrive purchase concluded in June 2020. [13] The sale of RBMedia's library division to OverDrive represents a merger of KKR's related assets. [17] [18]

On June 9, 2021, it was announced that OverDrive had reached a deal to acquire Kanopy, a leading on-demand streaming video platform for public and academic libraries. The acquisition was completed on July 15, 2021. [19]

In March of 2023, the company announced plans to sunset its flagship OverDrive app on May 1, 2023. OverDrive's new business model is to transition users to the newer Libby reading app, which allows public, corporate and academic library systems to provide digital content to members of their respective library's network. [20] The content consists of digital books, audiobooks, magazines and an extras section displaying all the databases and streaming media services that public, corporate and academic libraries have to offer to their users.

Reception

Connection to local library

The 2023 American Library Association report on the Digital Public Library Ecosystem found that younger users of the apps largely did not realize that local libraries paid for the services they received through apps like OverDrive's Libby. [1] :13

Data privacy

The 2023 American Library Association report on the Digital Public Library Ecosystem could not determine what user data Amazon could use and access from books read on the Kindle app through the partnership with Libby. [1] :11-12

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Toronto Public Library</span> Public library system in Toronto, Canada

Toronto Public Library is a public library system in Toronto, Ontario. It is the largest public library system in Canada, and in 2023 had averaged a higher circulation per capita than any other public library system internationally, making it the largest neighbourhood-based library system in the world. Within North America, it also had the highest circulation and visitors when compared to other large urban systems. Established as the library of the Mechanics' Institute in 1830, the Toronto Public Library now consists of 100 branch libraries and has over 26 million items in its collection.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">EBSCO Information Services</span> Distributor of eBooks and other digital media

EBSCO Information Services, headquartered in Ipswich, Massachusetts, is a division of EBSCO Industries Inc., a private company headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama. EBSCO provides products and services to libraries of many types around the world. Its products include EBSCONET, a complete e-resource management system, and EBSCOhost, which supplies a fee-based online research service with 375 full-text databases, a collection of 600,000-plus ebooks, subject indexes, point-of-care medical references, and an array of historical digital archives. In 2010, EBSCO introduced its EBSCO Discovery Service (EDS) to institutions, which allows searches of a portfolio of journals and magazines.

Monsoon Multimedia was a company that manufactured, developed and sold video streaming and place-shifting devices that allowed consumers to view and control live television on PCs connected to a local (home) network or remotely from a broadband-connected PC or mobile phone. It was one of 5 major transformations initiated by Prabhat Jain, a Silicon Valley entrepreneur with 5 undergraduate and post graduate engineering degrees from Cal Berkeley and Univ of Vienna, Austria. On the even of Cisco acquiring Monsoon in 2017, EchoStar, the new parent of Sling sued Monsoon for patent infringement, having obtained confidential information about the date of the acquisition by Cisco from a Monsoon employee under murky circumstances. Monsoon settled the lawsuit by agreeing not to sell its products in the USA simply because it did not have the legal funds to fight mighty Echostar's legal maneuvers. EchoStar thus successfully removed its only competitor from the market place. This meant Monsoon's death knell.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">TuneIn</span> American audio streaming service

TuneIn is a global audio streaming service providing news, radio, sports, music, and podcasts to over 75 million monthly active users.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">TalkTalk TV Store</span> UK-based video-on-demand service

TalkTalk TV Store was a UK-based transactional video-on-demand (VoD) service available on Macintosh and Microsoft Windows computers, games consoles, tablet computers and Smart TVs. Content is generally streamed, with downloading currently possible on Windows PC/laptops. The blinkbox brand had been extended to companion services offering digital music and books.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Calibre (software)</span> E-book management and editing software

Calibre is a cross-platform free and open-source suite of e-book software. Calibre supports organizing existing e-books into virtual libraries, displaying, editing, creating and converting e-books, as well as syncing e-books with a variety of e-readers. Editing books is supported for EPUB and AZW3 formats. Books in other formats like MOBI must first be converted to those formats, if they are to be edited. Calibre also has a large collection of community contributed plugins.

Rakuten Kobo Inc., or simply Kobo, is a Canadian company that sells ebooks, audiobooks, e-readers and tablet computers. It is headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Canada and is a subsidiary of the Japanese e-commerce conglomerate Rakuten. The name Kobo is an anagram of book.

Viber, or Rakuten Viber, is a cross-platform voice over IP (VoIP) and instant messaging (IM) software application owned by Japanese multinational company Rakuten, provided as freeware for the Google Android, iOS, Microsoft Windows, Apple macOS and Linux platforms. Users are registered and identified through a cellular telephone number, although the service is accessible on desktop platforms without needing mobile connectivity. In addition to instant messaging it allows users to exchange media such as images and video records, and also provides a paid international landline and mobile calling service called Viber Out. As of 2018, there are over a billion registered users on the network.

ReDigi was an online marketplace for used digital music, eBooks, games, apps, and software. It claims to be the only cloud storage service that verifies whether each digital file uploaded for storage was legally acquired from an eligible source. ReDigi's Cloud and Marketplace only accept lawfully purchased digital media. The service allowed users to buy and sell pre-owned digital content directly from one user to another. As of December 2020, the website is offline.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">E-book lending</span>

E-book lending or elending is a practice in which access to already-purchased downloads or online reads of e-books is made available on a time-limited basis to others. It works around the digital rights management built into online-store-published e-books by limiting access to a purchased e-book file to the borrower, resulting in loss of access to the file by the purchaser for the duration of the borrowing period.

Rakuten TV is a video-on-demand (VOD) streaming service, listing movies and TV series for subscription, rental, and purchase. Since 2019, the platform has provided users access to different content via TVOD, AVOD, FAST, and SVOD. It is owned by the Japanese company Rakuten. Rakuten TV's catalogue includes content from studios around the world, including Warner Bros., Disney, and Sony Pictures, local distributors, and independent labels, being the smallest and least known service among its competitors.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oyster (company)</span> Commercial streaming service for digital e-books

Oyster was a commercial streaming service for digital e-books, available for Android, iOS, Kindle Fire, and NOOK HD/HD+ devices. It was also available on any web browser on a desktop or laptop computer. Oyster held over 1 million books in its library, and as of September 2015, the service was only available in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hoopla (digital media service)</span> North American provider of digital media for public libraries

Hoopla is a web and mobile (Android/iOS) library media streaming platform launched in 2010 for audio books, comics, e-books, movies, music, and TV. Patrons of a library that supports Hoopla have access to its collection of digital media.

Recorded Books is an audiobook imprint of RBMedia, a publishing company with operations in countries globally. Recorded Books was formerly an independent audiobook company before being purchased and re-organized under RBMedia, where it is now an imprint. Recorded Books was founded in 1978 by Henry Trentman, one of the pioneers in the audiobook industry.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Google Play Books</span> Digital distribution service for ebooks

Google Play Books, formerly Google eBooks, is an ebook digital distribution service operated by Google, part of its Google Play product line. Users can purchase and download ebooks and audiobooks from Google Play, which offers over five million titles, with Google claiming it to be the "largest ebooks collection in the world". Books can be read on a dedicated Books section on the Google Play website, through the use of a mobile app available for Android and iOS, through the use of select e-readers that offer support for Adobe Digital Editions, through a web browser and reading via Google Home. Users may also upload up to 2,000 ebooks in the PDF or EPUB file formats. Google Play Books is available in 75 countries.

Kanopy is an on-demand streaming video platform for public and academic libraries that offers films, TV shows, educational videos and documentaries. The service is free for users, but content owners and content creators are paid on a pay-per-view model by the institution.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brigadier General Charles E. McGee Library</span> Public library in Silver Spring, Maryland, US

The Brigadier General Charles E. McGee Library, formerly the Silver Spring Library, is part of the Montgomery County Public Libraries System. It opened to the public in 1931 and is currently located at 900 Wayne Avenue in Silver Spring, Maryland. The library is named for Charles E. McGee, a Tuskegee Airman who had lived in Montgomery County.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bookmate</span> A social ebook subscription service

Bookmate is a social ebook subscription service, available primarily on mobile, with catalogues in 9 languages. The mobile app is supported on iOS, Android, Windows Phone and feature phones, and the service is also available in a web version.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">RBMedia</span> Audiobook publisher

RBMedia is an audiobook publishing company with sales globally. Headquartered in Landover, Maryland, it claims to be the largest audiobook publisher in the world.

Libby is a mobile app that supports users in accessing library services. It is a product of OverDrive, Inc.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Rachel Noorda and Kathi Inman Berens. Digital Public Library Ecosystem 2023 American Library Association.
  2. ↑ Reidel, Jeff (February 26, 2018). "OverDrive steering success in Northeast Ohio". WKYC. Retrieved July 11, 2018.
  3. ↑ McDonnell, Sean (December 16, 2023). "Libraries loaning e-books; There's the Libby app for that, and a Clevelander made it". The Plain Dealer . Retrieved December 20, 2023.
  4. ↑ "eBook Distribution Goes Global; OverDrive Content Reserve Creates International and Multi-lingual Marketplace". AllBusiness.com.
  5. ↑ "HarperCollins Launches Four Ebook Stores".
  6. ↑ "Harlequin Enterprises Announces the Launch of E-Book Program". Archived from the original on May 17, 2011.
  7. ↑ "OverDrive Powers Digital Audiobook Service for Borders".
  8. ↑ Fleishman, Glenn (September 23, 2011). "OverDrive Adds Kindle-Format Titles to Library Ebook Lending". TidBits. Archived from the original on June 6, 2019. Retrieved July 21, 2022.
  9. ↑ "OverDrive's Next Generation eBook Service to Extend Value of Digital Libraries". OverDrive.com (Press release).
  10. ↑ "LexisNexis Announces LexisNexis Digital Library" (Press release). Retrieved November 18, 2017.
  11. ↑ "OverDrive and Nokia Reading".
  12. ↑ "Fast-growing OverDrive shows off new HQ". Crain's Cleveland Business. April 12, 2013. Retrieved September 11, 2020.
  13. 1 2 3 Gross, Daniel A (September 2, 2021). "An App Called Libby and the Surprisingly Big Business of Library E-Books". The New Yorker. Archived from the original on September 2, 2021. Retrieved July 22, 2022.
  14. ↑ Milliot, Jim (March 19, 2015). "Rakuten to Buy OverDrive". Publishers Weekly.
  15. ↑ "Rakuten Buys Ebook And Audiobook Platform OverDrive For $410M". TechCrunch. Retrieved September 11, 2020.
  16. ↑ Milliot, Jim (June 9, 2020). "KKR Completes OverDrive Purchase". Publishers Weekly . Retrieved June 17, 2020.
  17. ↑ Scott Suttell (June 24, 2020). "Digital media company OverDrive buys the library assets of audiobook producer RBmedia" . Retrieved September 18, 2020.
  18. ↑ "OverDrive to Acquire RBdigital from RBmedia". prnewswire.com. June 23, 2020. Retrieved July 13, 2020.
  19. ↑ "L Squared Capital Partners Announces Pending Sale of Kanopy to OverDrive". Business Wire. June 9, 2021. Archived from the original on June 9, 2021. Retrieved July 21, 2022.
  20. ↑ Perez, Sarah (March 28, 2023). "PS Library e-book app OverDrive to shut down on May 1st, readers directed to Libby instead". Techcrunch.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.