Goodreads earned an 8% affiliate cut referring book buyers to Amazon
Otis Chandler · Goodreads: Otis and Elizabeth Chandler · Feb 7, 2022 · at 49:09
Otis Chandler details the revenue streams that supported Goodreads alongside display advertising.
0:00 / 0:07exact quote · 7.9s
720p mp4 · rendered on demand · StarZero watermark
“So affiliate was, we get, you know, an eight percent cut of a book when we refer a customer to Amazon or Barnes and Noble or somewhere where they buy a book.”
quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading: filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard (the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →
More from Otis Chandler
Amazon could not build a successful social product due to commerce-first culture
“But no, I mean, it turns out Amazon could not have built a successful social product because they are wired for commerce. This is my impression. You know, they shared with us a bunch of thinking they had in the social space, and it was just clear that they, wh…”
You have to be a founder to make life-changing money in tech
“I realized that, yeah, you have to be a founder to make life changing money.”
Amazon refused Kindle integration without acquiring an equity stake in Goodreads
“And so we had this strong vision, and we met with Amazon, like I said, four or five times over the years, kind of talking about, would we do this? And they were always into it. The issue was, it required deep integration to pull off, and they weren't comfortab…”
Social networks work best when built around shared 'social objects'
“Social objects, objects that people like to talk about that therefore can be the basis for sharing on a social network. Photos are super strong for that. Articles, cooking, like anything that people could kind of experience together or separately, but like hav…”
Otis Chandler: Amazon promised to run Goodreads as an independent brand
“Amazon made it a little easy in that they told us they would want to run us as an independent subsidiary and an independent brand, just like they run Audible and IMDB and Zappos and now Twitch, and they have a long list of track record of doing this.”