Wattpad
| Wattpad
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| Basic data
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| developer | WP Technology, Inc. |
| Publishing year | 2006 |
| Current version | varies ( Android )
6.47 ( iOS ) |
| operating system | Windows , Mac OS , Linux , Android , iOS , Windows Phone , Blackberry OS |
| category | Books , e-books |
| License | Freeware |
| German speaking | Yes |
| www.wattpad.com | |
Wattpad is an e-book platform for authors . On the website or in the app , registered users can read stories from other users and create their own stories in various genre categories, e.g. Publish historical novels , non-fiction books , youth books , fan fictions , or even poems in your virtual library . Since 2020 it has also been possible to read stories without registering. Wattpad explicitly describes the users as a " community ".
history
Wattpad was founded in 2006 by Allen Lau and Ivan Yuen. The development company WP Technology, Inc. is headquartered in Toronto . The motto of the app was: Stories you'll love (in German : Stories that you will love ). In 2007, Project Gutenberg made 17,000 e-books available to users.
In 2014, the app received $ 46 million from investors, bringing the total grants received to a total of $ 70 million in venture capital invested in Wattpad.
Wattpad announced a rebranding in February 2019 . The logo and interface as well as the motto ( Where Stories live , German : Where stories live ) were changed.
In July 2020, a massive data breach became known: the user data including name, gender, birthday, email and IP addresses as well as passwords (in the form of Bcrypt hashes) of approx. 270 million users were stolen and initially for 10 Bitcoins ( approx. 100,000 US dollars) and then made available free of charge in various hacker forums.
handling
Stories can be read online or downloaded for offline reading. Stories can be purchased via the app, but not via the website with so-called 'Wattpad Coins'. The number of downloads is limited if no subscription is taken out. Stories that have already been read can be stored in a virtual archive by users. It is possible to write your own texts and publish them. Most of the time, stories are uploaded in small parts or chapters at intervals. Readers can then rate and comment on these, provided they have a user account. Readers can also subscribe to individual authors to be informed about news. A chat function is also available after registering using an email address.
distribution
According to the developer, Wattpad has over 2 million authors and the platform is used by over 70 million people worldwide. Overall, the platform (as of January 2019) comprises over 565 million stories in 50 different languages.
Some stories attracted so much attention through Wattpad that they appeared as books or formed the basis for films and series, such as The Kissing Booth by Beth Reekles, which was filmed by Netflix .
Competitions
There are many competitions such as B. the Wattys with which the books can be awarded. The books are awarded for their story, their creativity, their writing style or any other specialty that sets the book apart. By voting for the books, it rises in the trends and has a good chance of winning. The Wattys is the largest online writing competition in the world. Minors need permission from their parents as prizes may be won.
Monetization
Wattpad sells advertisements in the stories, so-called "in-story ads", to interested advertisers. In addition, "publishing deals" are possible for interesting stories, ie contracts in which certain rights to the publication of the story are sold to interested publishers.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Download page for Android at play.google.com , accessed on November 6, 2015.
- ^ Social reading platform Wattpad announces massive $ 46M financing round. April 8, 2014, accessed May 14, 2019 .
- ↑ News & Updates - February 12, 2019 - Announcing the Wattpad Rebrand - Wattpad. Retrieved April 20, 2019 .
- ↑ Lawrence Abrams: Wattpad data breach exposes account info for millions of users. July 14, 2020, accessed July 14, 2020 .
- ↑ a b c d Marie Köster: To be a reader and an author. January 31, 2019, accessed May 14, 2019 .