I’m Worried About Comixology’s Future Following Amazon’s Layoffs

This week it was revealed that Amazon laid off 75% of its Comixology staff. This news came during a week where other high profile tech companies, such as Microsoft and Google, also made cuts to their workforces, leaving many seeking jobs. It goes without saying that anytime a company does a large round of layoffs and people’s livelihoods are impacted, that it’s sad. But with comic books being as popular as they currently are, it’s a shocking cut, and I feel like it’s indicative of the future of Comixology.

Amazon purchased Comixology back in 2014 and thought they did migrate to using an Amazon sign on at some point, the site stood on its own. In 2021, Amazon moved Comixology to its new home: the comics and manga section of the Kindle store. By comparison, Amazon purchased Audible in 2008 and the service still remains at https://www.audible.com as it always has.

This move by Amazon, paired with firing an overwhelming majority of the staff keeping it running, makes me think that we’re getting closer and closer to the death of the Comixology brand and the introduction of Kindle Comics. It’s hard to call for sure, as Amazon seems to be inconsistent with what they change and what remains the same. For example, Audible shows no sign of becoming Kindle Audio in the immediate future, nor does it seem like Twitch will be rebranded Amazon Stream, but something like Twitch Prime did get rebranded to Prime Gaming, despite being tied to a brand that stands on its own.

For the longest time, I’ve been mostly alright with how Amazon has handled Comixology because it didn’t feel too hands on the times I used it, even if I do hate it being a Kindle Store subsection. This rubs me the wrong way though. It’s reasonable for Amazon to want to consolidate its brands, as I’m sure the Kindle staff is more than capable of handling selling comics. That brings up the question of “Why consolidate now?” The reality is that it Amazon is a huge company and generally organizations of that size love to cut costs because money is more important than humans in that world, but I’d like to think there’s a better reason.

Last year, TechRadar ran an article about E-ink’s Gallery 3 screen, which is going to be making its way into an e-reader later this year. I wonder if Amazon is starting to look into releasing a Kindle Color, which would make an e-ink display viable for reading comic books for the first time. I have no doubt that wouldn’t be cheap and I imagine that layoffs would be a nice easy way to fund the work, but at this juncture, I’d rather have a team at Comixology running things that care about what they’re doing.