The Suwon, Korea-based company is to putting an end to Samsung Books once and for all by closing the service in its home country in December. The overseas version was disbanded earlier in July, due to negligible popularity.

Samsung launched its e-book service, named Readers Hub when launched, at the IFA tradeshow in Berlin in 2010. It was the company's first-ever content service to target smartphone and tablet users. Samsung strengthened ties with Canadian e-book device maker Kobo in 2012 in an attempt to further expand the service.

The company changed the name to Samsung Books in 2013 but the service remained unpopular. It was designed by Samsung's Media Solution Center, its content and software developing division, but it failed to keep pace with the likes of Google, Apple, and Amazon's counterpart due to lackluster content.

However, Samsung plans to cooperate with Amazon and local bookseller Kyobo Bookstore to launch new apps called Kindle for Samsung and Kyobo e-book locally, in an attempt to maximize content made available by others.

"We have decided to cooperate more with outside sources such as Amazon and Kyobo and bring good content from others rather than doing it alone," said a Samsung spokesman.

Source: ZDNet.co.kr