Ebook Metrics Report – Time to share some data!

I’m excited to report that after much work and lots of internal debate, we’ve decided to publicly share some of the interesting mobile ebook usage data we gather every day. We’re launching the first Wattpad Global Ebook Metrics Report which entails the quarterly release of a free report on the global activity we are seeing.  We pioneered ebook cloud services way back in 2006 (yes, that’s before Kindle even existed).  As a result, we can analyze every search, browse, read, and click and use this to optimize our service. This report offers a snapshot of the data to provide insight into trends in the ebook ecosystem.

Our first report covers both country and handset/manufacturer data with some fun facts attached at the end of the report. We expect to expand the report to include more axes of information in the coming months.

Here are the highlights:

• Wattpad is the world’s most downloaded mobile ebook applications with 3.1M downloads, 60% more than second place Amazon Lexcycle Stanza. Usage come from subscribers of over 450 mobile operators in 160 countries.
• Java devices are still the most used mobile platform for reading ebooks. 63% of ebook usage come from Java devices while iPhone usage grows to 33%.
• Nokia dominates the top device list with 4 of the top 6 are Nokia Series 40.  iPhone claims the top spot.
• iPhone dominates US ebook usage with 78% of iPhone usage comes from North America. Nokia still dominates the rest of the world.
• Blackberry usage grew over 400% since the launch of App World. Indicates the effectiveness of an application storefront.

Here are some fun facts:

• Usage typically surges on weekends by 10%
• Daily usage peaks in the evening at bed time (local times).
• Blackberry users read the least per day as shown in our average daily number of sessions. Blackberry users have about 1.6 session per day, while iPhone users have 2.3 and Java phone users read the most with 2.6 sessions per day.

Download the full report: Wattpad Global Ebook Metrics Report June 2009

An Open Letter to the writing community

Open Letter to the writing community

As noted in a recent New York Times article published on May 11, 2009, digital piracy in the literary world has ballooned in recent months as an expanding appetite for e-books has spawned a bumper crop of pirated editions on a number of websites such as Wattpad.

Firstly, while the New York Times article is correctly pointing out a real problem, we would like to strongly emphasize that it is not our desire to make the website open to copyright infringement.  Wattpad’s goal has always been a destination site for writers to publish their own works.  Users upload copyright material without the permission of the copyright owners violate Wattpad’s terms of use: http://www.wattpad.com/terms.

Since Wattpad’s inception, we have been actively monitoring uploads to identify and remove inappropriate content.  However, we have been facing increasing challenges in the recent months.  Due to the exponentially increasing volume of uploads and the difficulties in identifying unauthorized material, it is beyond our capability to effectively monitor uploads.

As a result, in April 2009 our website underwent a significant redesign to combat piracy, which included the introduction of a content filter to prevent repeat infringement, tracking and banning repeat offenders and other technology aided advancements.  As part of the redesign, we also launched a pilot program called “Authors In Charge” that is specifically set out to help identify and remove infringing material by copyright owners directly (http://www.wattpad.com/press?pr=043009).  Many writers, including New York Times bestselling authors, have joined the pilot program with great results.  The “Authors In Charge” program is the industry first to take such an initiative in order to protect content owners and at the same time support creative use of our innovative service for both writers and readers.  This reflects our commitment to eliminate copyright infringing material from the website.

In recent weeks, we have seen a dramatic decline in the number of takedown notices we have received from copyright owners, which is an indication that these changes, to a degree, are effective in combating privacy.  Despite these efforts, we recognize the daunting challenge we face in combating copyright infringement.  Therefore, we would like to send out an open invitation and welcome the entire writing community to join the “Authors In Charge” program.  Similar community self-policing methods has been used successfully by other websites, such as Wikipedia, in monitoring inappropriate content.  With more authors participating in this program and other proactive measures that we continue to develop, we truly believe that we can completely eliminate content piracy on Wattpad in the near future.

Thank you for your attention to this issue.

Regards,

The Wattpad Team

Macworld reviews Wattpad

We’re so psyched that Macworld, the most circulated publication on all things Apple, has done a review of Wattpad for iPhone! As our users already know, you get instant access to the vast library created and maintained by the community (you!) The iPhone version is arguably the best Wattpad experience to date, so of course there’s a lot to like. But watch out, we have a bunch of updates planned that will make it even better.

Check it out