WATT’S NEXT
THEY DISRUPTED PUBLISHING, NOW WATTPAD HAS ITS SIGHTS SET ON HOLLYWOOD.
Ayear after its launch, Wattpad — an app that allows contributors to upload and share their writing for public viewing — had just 1,000 users.
“There was no one uploading anything,” co-founder and CEO Allen Lau recalled in a recent interview. “It was a chicken and egg problem: without any content I could not attract any audience; without any audience I could not attract anyone to upload anything.”
Lau started by uploading classics — works by Charles Dickens, Jane Austen and others. Two years went by before an original piece of writing was uploaded. From there, Lau recalls, Wattpad “was just on a rocket ship.”
Formed in 2006, Wattpad now boasts more than 45 million monthly users. More than 300 million stories have been uploaded, and readers collectively spend 15 billion minutes on Wattpad every month, reading stories in more than 50 languages. “On both the number of writers and content, we are already larger than the publishing industry combined,” Lau boasted.
Yet, i ncreasingly he is less focused on challenging the traditional publishing industry. His goal now is to turn Wattpad into the next Disney — a multi-level entertainment company that generates scripts, produces movies and TV shows, and even broadcasts those creations through its own channels.
“We want to revolutionize how entertainment content is being created and consumed,” he said.
In November, Wattpad announced a partnership with Universal Cable Productions UCP, a division of NBC Universal Cable Ent ertainment, which will see popular Wattpad stories turned into TV shows. A similar arrangement was announced earlier this year with Turner, a Time Warner company. In t he Philippines, Wattpad has already produced 265 TV episodes based on 65 of its stories.
Lau noted only two of last year’s 20 biggest movies were based on original content — many were sequels. He also claims 75 per cent of last year’s 400 new TV shows were cancelled after a single season.
“It’s very hard to create original content. But with the content on Wattpad we have the audience built- in already. So we are able to increase the success rate of original content to rival that of sequels,” he said. “We’re solving a big creative problem in Hollywood.”
In its arrangements with UCP and Turner, Wattpad will serve as co- producer and co- owner of any resulting adaptations. Eventually, Lau envisions Wattpad producing and broadcasting adaptations of popular Wattpad stories.
Asked if Wattpad could be like Netflix, but stream only shows and movies adapted from Wattpad stories, Lau replied: “Yeah, potentially.”
“We are turning ourselves from an app company into a full- blown, full- stack entertainment company,” he added. “You turn on the TV, you see us. If you go to a movie theatre, you see us. If you watch video content t hrough streaming, you would see us. If you go to the book store to buy traditional paper books, you would see our logos on many print books.
“The opportunity ahead of us is really big. We want to create the next Disney in Toronto.”
It’s an ambitious goal — one with a very small chance of being realized.
“It’s not easy to get there, but it feels like it’s a logical extension of what t hey have done to date,” said Boris Wertz, an investor in Wattpad, in an interview from Vancouver.
Wertz, the founding partner of Version One Ventures, said Wattpad has already beat significant odds. “It is really the first social net- work or social platform, at scale, that has been successfully built in Canada. That alone is a big achievement.”
Writers f uel Wattpad: Each month, more than 2.3 million contributors share at l east one chapter on Wattpad. Yet it’s not completely clear where they fit in Lau’s bold plan.
Of the site’s millions of contributors, Lau said only 1,000 have generated income of any degree. Ad revenue generated from popular works is shared with writers but Lau wouldn’t divulge how much total income has been generated for i ts writers. ( Wattpad Studios’ Aron Levitz later said in an email those 1,000 contributors have in total earned “more than several million dollars.”).
John Degen, executive director of the Writers’ Union of Canada, a group that represents published book authors, said Wattpad is a tool writers can use to develop and hone their work, but he is skeptical about its potential to generate income.
The fact that only 1,000 writers have generated income illustrates “how very rare that any level of real success is,” he said.
“It’s probably as effective as an unknown (writer) without an agent throwing a manuscript at a whole bunch of publishers,” he said. “( Publishers) get hundreds of manuscripts a week. Their slush pile is gigantic and the odds of you getting picked out of that slush pile are pretty slim.”
The odds of success using Wattpad are likely worse, Degen noted, because the pool of work is so large.
“It’s exciting but it’s not ready for prime time. It’s not … a serious vehicle for an author to put all of their energy into,” he added. “If there is money to be made in this business, it’s still through the traditional ( publishing) stream.”
Lau argues Wattpad is aiding writers. “Helping writers to make money in some unconventional ways, new ways, innovative ways, is a big part of our mission,” he said.
He points to the opportunity to write “brand stories” for large companies. For example, AT& T commissioned Wattpad “star” Anna Todd to write a story highlighting the dangers of distracted driving. The result was Weeping Willow, a romance in which the main character dies while texting and driving.
The production partnerships with UCP and Turner will generate more writer cash, Lau said, although he wouldn’t say how deals will be negotiated between Wattpad, the production companies, and writers. ( Writers retain copyright for any work they post on Wattpad).
“Writers would be able to supplement their income and would be able to participate in the success of the show or the advertisement,” Lau said. “We are helping them to make their dreams come true.”
A LOGICAL EXTENSION OF WHAT THEY HAVE DONE TO DATE.