Image: Oyster
A company that wanted to become the "Netflix for e-books" is no more.Oyster said in a blog post last night that it was "taking steps to sunset," which is startup talk for closing up shop. The service launched in 2013 as a mobile app, offering customers an all-you-can-eat (well, read) subscription for $9.95 per month. The service had a library of more than 1 million e-books.Some of the company's staff, including its CEO and co-founders, are joining Google's online e-book store.In the blog post, Oyster said it still believes that phones will become "the primary reading device globally over the next decade." While anticipated smartphone adoption rates may support that notion, Americans only read about five books per year, according to Pew, which is a number that may be too small to support Netflix-like subscription services such as Oyster. At least two other companies, Amazon and document-hosting website Scribd, still offer similar services.