India's largest online retailer Flipkart has stopped selling electronic books from 11 December 2015, as it saw the Indian users not yet ready to adopt the ebook format.
Flipkart portal is showing the message "Sorry! Page not found." for a search conducted to shop ebooks.
However, the service will be continued by Canada's eBook and eReader provider Rakuten Kobo for those who already purchased books on Flipkart.
"The Indian book market is overwhelmingly dominated by physical books, and this is a market that is growing at a fast clip. Flipkart will continue to be a leading player in the overall books market in India," the company said in a statement.
"In its overall strategy for books, Flipkart does not see the ebooks service as a strategic fit and hence the decision of transitioning the ebooks service to Kobo," it said.
The online retailer had started selling e-books on its platform from November 2012 and in the following year it launched an e-book app for mobile users.
Speculations over Flipkart quitting its ebook business started in September after it ended an agreement with Smashwords, a distributor of ebooks. Flipkart had partnered with Smashwords in August 2013.
While Flipkart's ebook business did not show any pick up, its rival Amazon India scored well on the front and analysts estimate the company is the largest seller of ebooks.
So far, Flipkart has exited business in three categories, with the latest being ebook, even though it continues to expand its services to new categories and sell more merchandise than Seattle-based Amazon, Livemint reported.
Last year, Flipkart had closed its payment gateway Payzippy, launched in July 2013, after the service failed to meet its expectations.
Similarly, it shut down music streaming business Flyte in May 2013, citing risks of music piracy and lack of proper infrastructure.
