Wattpad closes first round of funding

Nate the great · 01-11-2010, 03:31 PM

Quote:

Toronto, Canada, January 11, 2010 --(PR.com)-- Riding on the success of 1,216% year-over-year growth in 2009, Wattpad today announced that the company has completed its first round of funding. A consortium of private investors including Harvey Beck and Alan Levine, former co-CEOs of ICOM and Bert Amato, co-founder of Delrina participated in this round.

Wattpad, also known as "YouTube for ebooks + MySpace for writers", is the world's most popular ebook community where readers and writers discover, share and connect. The investment will allow Wattpad to capitalize on its leading position in the red hot mobile, social media and ebook sectors.

from:
http://www.pr.com/press-release/203504

Krystian Galaj · 01-11-2010, 04:20 PM

Each page of it takes over a minute to load.

It showed me, correctly, ebooks in Polish on first page. All of them well known and published, all of them look illegal, ie. one "publisher" usually has books by many top-selling authors. I think it highly improbable that they're there legally.

ahi · 01-11-2010, 04:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Krystian Galaj

Each page of it takes over a minute to load.

It showed me, correctly, ebooks in Polish on first page. All of them well known and published, all of them look illegal, ie. one "publisher" usually has books by many top-selling authors. I think it highly improbable that they're there legally.

A well-known travesty that will surely do the Polish publishing industry under. Perhaps some unconditional government subsidies are in order?

- Ahi

CleverClothe · 01-11-2010, 05:09 PM

After browsing the site for a bit, I think they really only need two categories:

"Teen Fantasy Romance" and "Everything Else".

mtravellerh · 01-11-2010, 05:33 PM

Quote:

the world's most popular ebook community

dadioflex · 01-11-2010, 06:11 PM

Edit.

LDBoblo · 01-11-2010, 06:34 PM

Not enough piracy on this site to make it more popular. No worries though, we'll catch up someday.

kennyc · 01-11-2010, 06:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CleverClothe

After browsing the site for a bit, I think they really only need two categories:

"Teen Fantasy Romance" and "Everything Else".

No, no just Fantasy Romance and Vampire Romance.

SensualPoet · 01-11-2010, 07:04 PM

I had no idea this was a Toronto company. There's actually some pretty interesting material here. There's some cool material being published there and it's an inexpensive venture to fund. Plus there is great potential being on the ground floor. These are folks to watch.

kovidgoyal · 01-11-2010, 07:19 PM

SensualPoet · 01-11-2010, 07:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

Can you elaborate on that?

JSWolf · 01-11-2010, 08:40 PM

Wattpad is awful. Long live MobileRead!

Nate, Wattpad is not worth reporting on. And it certainly doesn't deserve to be on the fontpage.

SensualPoet · 01-11-2010, 09:50 PM

I'm not sure I understand the hostility. Mobileread is a great distribution vehicle for PD e-books and an awesome resource for e-book everything information sharing.

Wattpad is simply another variation in an evolving mileu which is creating a paradigm in real-time. If it can attract funding, and provides a creative outlet for budding writers to share amongst themselves, how is this a bad or an awful thing?

kennyc · 01-11-2010, 10:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SensualPoet

I'm not sure I understand the hostility. Mobileread is a great distribution vehicle for PD e-books and an awesome resource for e-book everything information sharing.

Wattpad is simply another variation in an evolving mileu which is creating a paradigm in real-time. If it can attract funding, and provides a creative outlet for budding writers to share amongst themselves, how is this a bad or an awful thing?

It's not, but I didn't see anything there even vaguely appealing to me.

kovidgoyal · 01-11-2010, 10:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SensualPoet

Can you elaborate on that?

Just the grandiosity of the language in the press release tickled my funny bone.

01-11-2010, 06:11 PM	#6
dadioflex Dyslexic Count Posts: 526 Karma: 5041991 Join Date: Aug 2008 Device: Palm TX, Advent Vega, iPad, iPod Touch, Kindle	Edit. Last edited by dadioflex; 12-15-2010 at 07:43 PM.

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01-11-2010, 04:20 PM	#2
Krystian Galaj Guru Posts: 820 Karma: 11012 Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Warsaw, Poland Device: Bookeen Cybook	Each page of it takes over a minute to load. It showed me, correctly, ebooks in Polish on first page. All of them well known and published, all of them look illegal, ie. one "publisher" usually has books by many top-selling authors. I think it highly improbable that they're there legally.

01-11-2010, 05:09 PM	#4
CleverClothe Guru Posts: 618 Karma: 493394 Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: Seattle, WA Device: iRex iLiad, Onyx Boox 60	After browsing the site for a bit, I think they really only need two categories: "Teen Fantasy Romance" and "Everything Else".

01-11-2010, 06:34 PM	#7
LDBoblo Wizard Posts: 1,385 Karma: 16056 Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Asia Device: Kindle 3 WiFi, Sony PRS-505	Not enough piracy on this site to make it more popular. No worries though, we'll catch up someday.

01-11-2010, 07:04 PM	#9
SensualPoet Wizard Posts: 2,302 Karma: 2607151 Join Date: Nov 2009 Location: Toronto Device: Kobo Aura HD, Kindle Paperwhite, Asus ZenPad 3, Kobo Glo	I had no idea this was a Toronto company. There's actually some pretty interesting material here. There's some cool material being published there and it's an inexpensive venture to fund. Plus there is great potential being on the ground floor. These are folks to watch.

01-11-2010, 07:19 PM	#10
kovidgoyal creator of calibre Posts: 45,609 Karma: 28549044 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Mumbai, India Device: Various

01-11-2010, 08:40 PM	#12
JSWolf Resident Curmudgeon Posts: 80,782 Karma: 150249619 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Roslindale, Massachusetts Device: Kobo Libra 2, Kobo Aura H2O, PRS-650, PRS-T1, nook STR, PW3	Wattpad is awful. Long live MobileRead! Nate, Wattpad is not worth reporting on. And it certainly doesn't deserve to be on the fontpage.

01-11-2010, 09:50 PM	#13
SensualPoet Wizard Posts: 2,302 Karma: 2607151 Join Date: Nov 2009 Location: Toronto Device: Kobo Aura HD, Kindle Paperwhite, Asus ZenPad 3, Kobo Glo	I'm not sure I understand the hostility. Mobileread is a great distribution vehicle for PD e-books and an awesome resource for e-book everything information sharing. Wattpad is simply another variation in an evolving mileu which is creating a paradigm in real-time. If it can attract funding, and provides a creative outlet for budding writers to share amongst themselves, how is this a bad or an awful thing?

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