Oyster, the 'Netflix for books,' shuts down its service as founders join Google

When Oyster launched two years ago, the small start-up was supposed to be taking a big swing at Amazon's book monopoly with its unlimited reading plan for $9.95 a month. Now, it is saying goodbye to that dream.

Oyster, the e-book subscription service often referred to as the "Netflix for books," announced in a blog post that it will be "sunsetting its service" over the next few months.

"As we continue on, we couldn't be more excited about the future of ebooks and mobile reading. We believe more than ever that the phone will be the primary reading device globally over the next decade-enabling access to knowledge and stories for billions of people worldwide. Looking forward, we feel this is best seized by taking on new opportunities to fully realize our vision for ebooks," the startup wrote.

Google confirmed to Re/Code that a "portion" of the team will be heading to Google Play Books, its online bookstore equivalent. Business Insider has reached out for a comment to Oyster and will update when we hear back.

The startup had signed on all of the Big Five publishers as well as a bunch of smaller houses to give its readers more than one million titles. When Business Insider interviewed the cofounders in April, they were still thinking long term.

"We want to be the Amazon of the next 10 years," cofounder Willem Van Lacker said at the time. "We want to build the company that takes e-books into the next wave."

The two-year-old startup faced competition from Amazon itself. Last year, Amazon unveiled its Kindle Unlimited program, a similar read-all-you-want ebook program, although it didn't have as many major publishers. Another competitor, Scribd, offers a similar Netflix-style e-book subscription, but adds the option of audiobooks and comics.

Disclosure: Jeff Bezos is an investor in Business Insider through hispersonal investment company Bezos Expeditions.