ComiXology's Future is in Doubt

Amazon is known for its online store, where they carry just about everything from a to z (as seen in its logo). Being the #1 shopping destination has allowed the company to stretch its fingers into many other areas. Perhaps you own an Echo speaker. You may shop at Whole Foods. Plenty of major sites are hosted on Amazon Web Services. And manga and light novel readers may have a whole digital collection on a Kindle device or app.

But readers may have also purchased manga on another Amazon-owned platform: ComiXology.

ComiXology

ComiXology was founded in 2007 as a way for readers to preorder comic issues and pick them up at their local shop.

But eventually, ComiXology began offering digital comic purchases. And by 2014, it was the leading digital comics platform, a status Amazon coveted since its original comics imprint Jet City Publishing didn’t take off. So Amazon bought ComiXology.

While Amazon’s Kindle and ComiXology stores remained separate, users could purchase Kindle content to also view on ComiXology, but not vice versa.

Part of ComiXology’s appeal was “guided view”, an option which panels were shown individually instead of showing an entire page at once.

In 2016, ComiXology unveiled ComiXology Unlimited. For $5.99 a month, readers could access thousands of comics and graphic novels from a range of publishers like Archie Comics, Dark Horse, and IDW Publishing. Simulpubs from Kodansha Comics were also included.

Another big move came in 2017 with the launch of ComiXology Originals, a line of exclusive content, which would later expand to creator-owned content instead of partnering with publishers. Originals are available to purchase or could be read for free with a subscription to Amazon Prime, ComiXology Unlimited, or Kindle Unlimited, a similar all-you-can-read subscription plan with a range of titles and genres.

While manga had already been included on ComiXology Unlimited, Kodansha Comics partnered with ComiXology Originals to debut newly licensed or rescued manga like Battle Angel Alita, Seven Shakespeares, and Shaman King.

ComiXology Unlimited

ComiXology 4.0

While Amazon’s Kindle and ComiXology stores remained separate since Amazon’s purchase of the company, users could purchase Kindle content to also view on ComiXology, but not vice versa.

However, in 2021, Amazon announced changes were coming that fall, starting with ComiXology’s home page redirecting to Amazon.

While other implementations continued (including all of ComiXology content being available on Kindle), the overall merging was delayed to 2022 due to “feedback we received from our community” according to Amazon.

The merger was completed in February 2022, and this “ComiXology 4.0” was met with widespread criticism immediately after and still months later. Among the complaints were lack of subscriptions for all series, no more DRM-free downloads, poor search, and unintuitive menus. Creators also expressed concerns about the drop in royalties and the (re)upload process.

Also in 2022, Amazon removed in-app purchases for Android devices. This was already disabled on iOS back in 2014. Meanwhile, features like Guided View didn’t make the Kindle web reader until December 2022.

Now, there are real fears there will be a lack of new or reimplemented features from ComiXology. On January 18th, a large number of ComiXology employees were laid off.

This is part of 18,000 positions being downsized at Amazon, and it appears at least half — if not three-fourths — of the ComiXology team were let go.

Amazon is far from the only tech company laying off people; Microsoft and Alphabet (Google) both eliminated employees this same week, and others are going to be doing the same.

Reasons (stated or otherwise) for these include the large number of hires during the pandemic to handle all the societal changes, high interest rates, and following suit with what the other Big Tech companies are doing.

ComiXology’s Future

But with 50 to 75% of ComiXology employees being laid off, there are many questions about what will happen to the division. Are the remaining employees expected to continue to operate Amazon’s comics division as it has been? Are comics going to be treated like any other genre at Kindle? Will offerings like ComiXology Originals be discontinued for new titles? People have already expressed a lot of disappointment about ComiXology 4.0 since February 2022, and if few improvements were made with a full staff, it seems unlikely there will be significant beneficial changes on a skeleton staff.

However, the news is unsurprising to many. ComiXology operated mostly independently for years, and the only reason now to push it to the Amazon storefront is to cut costs. I agree the two storefronts were confusing at time (why couldn’t purchases sync two-ways?), but the ComiXology site was much easier to browse than Amazon’s site. In fact, Amazon’s search seems to be getting worse. And on the manga front, results are often cluttered by “self-published” titles which are actually scanlations and rips of official series.

Speaking of manga, ComiXology Originals has allowed several Kodansha titles to be rescued and rereleased, including some long-running series that may not have been able to return otherwise. But if ComiXology Originals are being downsized or even eliminated, I do wonder if that is part of the reason Kodansha is pulling simulpubs from venues. With the loss of a big partner like Amazon, Kodansha Comics may have decided it’s time to go ahead with their own service and make those ComiXology Originals part of their own service exclusives. Series like Peach Girl and MARS, for instance, did not feature a new translation or anything, so those were surely relatively cheap to rerelease. Exclusives like those could help build Kodansha’s library and offset more expensive modern and/or lengthier licenses even without Amazon’s backing.

Kodansha Comics x ComiXology Originals

Still, it’s always sad to hear about people getting laid off, especially as many were long-term employees. I hope they are able to find new jobs as soon as possible.

I personally didn’t use ComiXology a lot, as I would just buy on Kindle and would occasionally get Kindle Unlimited trials, but I certainly found it easier to browse for titles and sales on there compared to Amazon. I can only imagine the frustration of dedicated ComiXology fans with 4.0’s rollout, and creators took a hit as well with lessened royalties. There are other comic platforms, certainly, but few have the wide range of Amazon/ComiXology or its clout. And moving to a new service is always a headache, as that likely means repurchasing titles or having to jump back to Amazon anyway to reread previous issues. For both employees and consumers, this news is depressing, but reading the tea leaves, layoffs were coming. I just don’t think most predicted it would be at this scale though.

Have you been a big ComiXology reader? What did you think about the merger with Amazon? What do you think will happen in the future now with fewer ComiXology employees?