Wattpad, the online writing and reading community, continued its long arch of membership growth and increased social connectivity last year, finishing 2013 with more than 18 million registered users, according to data released by the company Monday. Other figures show that more than 64,000 stories are uploaded to Wattpad or expanded everyday, 53% of Wattpad users have written a story on their phones and 85% of the time spent on Wattpad is via mobile phone or tablet.
The site also noted that Wattpad member Beth Reekles’ story “The Kissing Booth” generated more than 19 million reads on the site. Reekles’ novel The Beach House, a novella based on “The Kissing Booth,” has generated more than 2.2 million reads on Wattpad. Wattpad users spent an average of 30 minutes per session on the site in 2013. During the year, there were more than 20 million new stories uploaded to Wattpad and the site has uploaded a total of more than 32.2 million stories since it began.
Social connectivity—the ability to connect to like-minded users with social media or messaging—continues to grow and Wattpad reports more than 53 million connections (comments and votes) in 2013 that generated more than 300 million messages. Wattpad provides users a place to upload their writing and receive feedback and support from a community of readers. All content is free to read and Wattpad offers stories in more than 30 different languages.
Allen Lau, Wattpad cofounder and CEO, says, “We’ve redefined what it means to be a reader by empowering a new generation to read, create and shape the stories that matter to them, all from their mobile devices. We’ve seen major growth in 2013 thanks to the incredibly active Wattpad community. We expect an even bigger year ahead, and ultimately, a future where millions of original stories are created every day.”
