Rakuten Kobo's App Transformation: Empowering everyone with the love of reading

 

 

This product strategy documentation outlines the product strategy of Kobo’s reading app, designed to transform it into a global, innovative leader in the digital reading experience.

1.1 Background

Kobo began in Canada in the late 2000s with a bold mission: to disrupt the way the world reads by making books more accessible, more personal, and more enjoyable than ever before. Now, as part of the Rakuten family, Kobo has evolved into a truly global brand, reaching readers across the Americas, Europe, and Asia with a distinctive combination of hardware, software, and subscription services.

The Kobo Reading App, launched in 2014, has since scaled to a worldwide audience of more than 100 million users. With over 10 million downloads on Google Play (4.0 ★ from 290K reviews) and a 4.5 ★ rating on the Apple App store (#11 in Books, 64.8K reviews), the app commands a loyal, engaged user base. Its catalog spans over 2 million ebooks and up to 300,000 audiobooks, supported by Kobo Plus, which is a flexible subscription offering tiered “Read,” “Listen,” and “Read & Listen” plans with region-specific pricing (e.g., Canada: $9.99–$12.99).

What differentiates Kobo is its integrated ecosystem: premium eReaders, a feature-rich mobile app, and the Kobo Plus subscription service that together deliver a seamless, end-to-end reading experience. Its recent innovations, such as a major iOS redesign, Instapaper integration, the audiobook Listening Bar, and guest mode, highlight Kobo’s commitment to continuous improvement. With these assets in place, Kobo is uniquely positioned not just to participate in the digital reading market but to redefine it on a global scale.

1.2 Problem Statement

Over the summer of 2025, Kobo’s app has suffered a number of setbacks in its user experience. Negative feedback in app stores and online forums reveals recurring issues that erode trust, drive uninstalls, and hurt subscription conversion. See below for several user feedback.

• From Google Play reviews (2025): 

• “Missing features and tons of terrible bugs: Brightness is full manual, no auto and doesn't follow the device settings; … screen brightness setting resets constantly …” 

• “Updates 😡😡😡 The October update messed everything up and with the update today, I can't even stay in the app, it just closes.”

• From Reddit users (2025): “Footnotes don’t work – clicking on the footnote link on my epub nothing happens … clicking on chapter title links also randomly sometimes just reverts to the cover page and freezes … this is absolutely a dealbreaker…”

• From CNN Underscored review (2025): “It doesn’t auto-adjust brightness … what I didn’t like …” highlighting that users now expect ambient brightness adjustments.

Table 1.2.1 contains the key problems, their impacts, and supporting evidence. It is followed by strategic gaps in UI/UX and product innovation that must be addressed for Kobo to reclaim a position among the top digital reading apps by 2026.

Table 1.2.1: Core Issues and their impacts from the recent Kobo app release in 2025.

Beyond bugs and technical regressions, there are deeper strategic gaps and product innovation needs in how Kobo competes and delivers value:

• UI/UX redesign is needed: The app’s visual layout, navigation, and feature access need to be more intuitive, modern, and aligned with current user expectations.

• Personalization and innovation are lacking: The experience does little to tailor content based on users’ preferences or re-engage lapsed readers with smart insights and reminders. These are differentiators in top apps today.

• Holistic reading journey missing: The app is perceived by some users as simply a storefront and reader. It must become more than that with innovative ideas: include fostering a community with a reading buddy or virtual book clubs, or having giveaways or companion products such as candles and socks, so that paying subscription feels richer.

With this user feedback and lack of innovative, personalized features, Kobo will continue to face these challenges: 

• Lower trial-to-paid conversion rates: Users trying the app or subscription will encounter friction and drop off.

• Higher churn and uninstall rates: Disappointments in core reading experience (brightness, links, app stability) cause people to abandon.

• Poor App Store rating momentum and bad word-of-mouth: These amplify each other; negative reviews dissuade new users, making growth more expensive.

• Loss of competitive positioning: Other apps (e.g. Kindle, Audible) are innovating aggressively. Kobo risks being seen as lagging, rather than leading.

To become a top-3 digital reading app globally by 2026, Kobo must not only fix the urgent issues but also reimagine the experience. The goal is to restore trust, deliver delight, and build a product that prospective subscribers feel they can’t live without because of experience, personalization, and continuous value.

1.3 Solutions

Kobo has an extraordinary opportunity to transform its app from a solid reading platform into a defining pioneer. To do so, the immediate priority is to repair user trust by addressing several bugs and then layering on differentiated features that drive engagement, retention, and subscription growth. The following high-level solution areas will deliver the greatest impact:

• Fix Critical UX Regressions
  

• Eliminate blockers such as brightness overrides, broken footnotes, and crashes.

• Restoring reading comfort is the fastest way to reduce uninstall rates and improve app store ratings, directly boosting trial-to-paid conversion.
  

• Generate Reading-First Retention and Innovative Features
  

• Introduce features that build daily/weekly reading habits and create emotional attachment: smart reading insights, streaks and achievements, and personalized progress summaries.

• Enable community engagement through virtual book clubs and social recommendations, allowing users to see what peers are reading and join discussions.

• Enhance discoverability with curated and reader-generated recommendations, ensuring users feel guided, not overwhelmed.
  

• Strengthen Paid Subscription Activation
  

• Provide stronger incentives to convert trial users into subscribers: extended trial bundles with devices, limited-time discounts, and exclusive content (e.g. special editions) for subscribers.

• Simplify and surface the subscription call-to-action at key touchpoints (first sample read, first audiobook listened, and device onboarding).
  

• Improve Customer Support and Responsiveness
  

• Establish a proactive feedback loop: respond directly to app store reviews with clear instructions and transparent updates.

• Introduce an in-app help center with AI-assisted troubleshooting and escalation to human agents for complex cases.

• Strengthen customer satisfaction by tracking resolution times and publishing service SLAs.

By stabilizing the core user experience, then layering in retention, subscription, and support enhancements, Kobo can move from being “good enough” to being powerful. These solutions not only repair the current gaps but also establish the foundation for the innovative features (detailed in another section) that will differentiate Kobo and help position it among the top three global digital reading apps by 2026.

1.4 Target Market and User Journeys

Kobo operates in a rapidly expanding global digital reading market. While ebooks and audiobooks continue to grow worldwide, consumer behaviour differs significantly by region:

• North America and Europe: Mature ebook markets with strong competition (Amazon Kindle, Audible, Apple Books). Users demand seamless cross-device experiences and value subscription flexibility.

• Asia-Pacific and Emerging Markets: Rapidly growing smartphone-first reading markets where affordability, accessibility, and localized content are key differentiators.

• Global Trend: Younger demographics (e.g. Gen Z, Millennials) increasingly consume audiobooks, serialized digital fiction, and social/interactive reading content.

Kobo’s opportunity lies in leveraging its international presence and Rakuten ecosystem to deliver a globally consistent yet locally relevant reading experience that balances affordability, catalog depth, and innovative engagement features.

The main user personas for the Kobo reading app are the following:

1. The Committed Reader (“The Bookworm”)
   

• Profile: Reads multiple books per month and uses both eBooks and audiobooks. Values a deep catalog and personalized recommendations.

• Needs: Seamless access to a large catalog, reliable reading experience (no UX regressions), curated recommendations, personalized reading insights, community presence and flexible subscription tiers.

• Opportunities for Kobo: Most likely to convert and stay in Kobo Plus, and will strongly advocate if delighted with stability and discovery features.
  

2. The Audiobook Commuter (“The Listener”)
   

• Profile: Listens during commutes, chores, or workouts. Consumes 1–3 audiobooks/month. Highly sensitive to playback UI and offline access.

• Needs: Smooth audiobook playback (listening bar, speed controls, car integration), reliable offline sync, discoverability of new titles.

• Opportunities for Kobo: Bundle audiobook access into ‘Read & Listen’ subscription; engage with exclusive audiobook-first launches.
  

3. The Occasional Reader (“The Casual Explorer”)
   

• Profile: Reads 2–5 books per year, often tied to trends, recommendations, or life events. Uses the app sporadically.

• Needs: Easy onboarding, sample previews, strong free trial hook, simple subscription model, ‘rent-a-book’.

• Opportunities for Kobo: Convert occasional readers into paying subscribers through device bundles, trial promotions, and personalized nudges.
  

4. The Academic / Knowledge Seeker (“The Researcher”)
   

• Profile: Students, researchers, and professionals; reads nonfiction and annotated texts with heavy use of highlights, notes, and footnotes.

• Needs: Accurate footnote navigation, robust highlight/annotation tools, and easy export/sharing.

• Opportunities for Kobo: Ensure reliability in academic features. Offer student pricing tiers. Promote Instapaper integration as a research tool.

The current user journey for the Kobo reading app is seen as the following flow:

1. Awareness and Acquisition

• User discovers Kobo via device purchase, app store, or referral.

• User shapes their first impressions by app store ratings and reviews.

2. Onboarding

• User creates account.

• User subscribes to the trial version.

• User downloads the first free sample or views the audiobook preview.

3. Activation

• User completes the first chapter or listens to 15 minutes of the audiobook.

• User noticed early friction (e.g., broken brightness or links) in the app.

4. Engagement and Habit Formation

• User creates a habit formation with the app via regular reading/listening sessions.

• User deepens their engagement with the app through other features. 

5. Conversion to Paid Subscription

• User converts to a paid subscription due to various reasons, such as exclusive catalog content.

6. Retention and Advocacy

• User stays if they feel value beyond “just a store” with personalization, community, and consistent quality.

• Satisfied users leave positive reviews, recommend Kobo, and expand lifetime value.

Kobo must evolve from being a ‘functional reading app’ into a personalized, habit-forming, and community-driven reading ecosystem. By mapping solutions directly to these personas and journeys, Kobo can maximize engagement, reduce churn, and achieve its goal of becoming a top-3 global digital reading app by 2026.

1.5 Competitive Research

An important aspect of the Kobo app is to analyze the competitive landscape to better understand how this organization can position itself uniquely and truly provide valuable services to its target market. Table 1.5.1 highlights the core features, pricing, user metrics and current gaps.

Table 1.5.1: Competitive landscape of the major digital reading apps.

1.6 Feature List

For this Kobo’s app transformation, there are endless feature ideas that can be included. Table 1.6.1 is a preliminary list of these feature ideas that can be considered.

Table 1.6.1: List of current and new features for the Kobo app transformation. 

 

 

1.7 KPIs

One of the most important components for this product strategy is defining the north star and its KPIs. Kobo wants to retain paying subscribers and increase their reading behaviour, which directly drives subscription renewals, upsells and word-of-mouth growth. Therefore, for the north star, it would be to engage subscribers in reading more, more often. This can be translated to this metric: Monthly Active Subscribers × Average Reading Hours per Subscriber. 

To support this, here is the metric framework:

1. Acquisition and Onboarding

• App Installs (iOS, Android)

• Guest-to-Registered User Conversion Rate

• Onboarding Completion Rate (e.g., % of users who set preferences/goals)

• CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost): especially important for paid campaigns

• Trial Starts (% of new users who begin Kobo Plus free trial)

2. Engagement and Retention

• DAU/MAU Ratio (stickiness)

• Reading Session Frequency (avg sessions per user per week)

• Average Reading Time per Active User

• Completion Rate of Books Started

• Feature Adoption Metrics:

• % of users using Reading Goals/Streaks

• % joining Book Clubs or Challenges

• Push Notification Response Rate

• Churn Rate (Free Users): uninstall or inactive within 30 days

3. Monetization and Subscription Health

• Trial-to-Paid Conversion Rate

• Kobo Plus Subscriber Growth (by tier: Read / Listen / Read+Listen)

• ARPU (Average Revenue Per User)

• LTV (Customer Lifetime Value)

• Churn Rate (Paid Subscribers)

• Upsell Rate (% of subscribers upgrading tiers or purchasing extra content)

• Attach Rate of Audiobooks (a key upsell area vs competitors)

4. Customer Satisfaction and Brand Trust

• App Store Rating Trends (Google Play, Apple App Store)

• CSAT (Customer Satisfaction Score)

• NPS (Net Promoter Score)

• Support Ticket Resolution Time

• Public Review Sentiment (Positive vs Negative mentions of UX, brightness, footnotes, etc.)

5. Operational and Ecosystem KPIs

• Catalog Growth (# of titles available in subscription & transactional models)

• Local Market Penetration (e.g., subscription uptake in Japan, Canada, Europe, LATAM)

• Publisher / Author Satisfaction (survey or retention metrics)

• Referral Rate (% of new users acquired via referral program)

• Library Integration Usage (% of users linking library card / borrowing books)

1.8 Benefits

For this Kobo’s app transformation, there are multiple benefits for both the business and users. This means higher subscription growth, stronger brand equity, and ecosystem expansion. For users, it means an easier, more personal, more engaging, and more joyful reading journey. See its list below. 

1. Business Benefits 

• Higher Subscription Growth and Retention

• Fixing UX regressions and adding retention hooks (reading streaks, goals, clubs) directly increases free-to-paid conversion and reduces churn.

• More engaged readers lead to longer subscription lifetimes and higher LTV.

• Increased Revenue per User (ARPU)

• Tiered subscription plans (Read, Listen, Read+Listen) become more attractive with exclusive content, audiobooks, AI features, and rentals.

• Additional monetization via upsells: exclusive editions, merchandise, events, and Instapaper integration.

• Improved Market Positioning

• Stronger differentiation vs Kindle and Apple Books: Kobo becomes the app that cares about readers first (UX comfort, personalization, community).

• Opportunity to grow into emerging markets where Kindle/Apple lacks localized content.

• Better Brand Perception and Trust

• Quick fixes to regressions and improved support responses shift ratings upward in app stores.

• Transparent, responsive communication (in-app help, replies to reviews) reinforces Kobo’s reputation as reader-centric.

• Ecosystem Expansion and Partnerships

• Strengthened ties with publishers, authors, and libraries by offering richer analytics, promotion options, and integrated lending pathways.

• Opens new revenue streams (e.g., events, podcasts, merchandise).
  
  

2. User Benefits

• Frictionless Start and Personalization

• Guest mode, social logins, and personalized onboarding make it easy to try Kobo without commitment.

• Genre preferences, goals, and AI recommendations ensure every user feels catered to from day one.

• Superior Reading Comfort

• Deep customization (e.g. fonts, backgrounds, scroll style, brightness control, translations) creates the most comfortable reading app on the market.

• UX bugs (e.g. brightness override, footnote links) are fixed, restoring trust and reducing frustration.

• Habit Formation and Motivation

• Stats, streaks, nudges, and challenges turn reading into a rewarding daily ritual.

• Readers celebrate milestones, boosting self-motivation and stickiness.

• Community and Belonging

• Virtual book clubs, challenges, leaderboards, and peer recommendations create social bonds and a sense of shared reading culture.

• Following authors and joining discussions deepens the connection to books and creators.

• Broader Access and Flexibility

• Rentals, library integration, and offline reading options meet diverse needs across income levels and regions.

• Multilingual support and on-demand translations open Kobo to a wider global audience.

• Beyond-the-Book Experiences

• Podcasts, relaxing music, Instapaper integration, merchandise, and giveaways enrich the ecosystem.

• Kobo becomes more than just a bookstore; it becomes a reading lifestyle hub.
  
  

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