Brazilian startup Widbook, a writing and e-book publishing platform, has just released a plan that changes the way users find stories. All internal pages have been revamped, making the platform more "intuitive, social and interactive."
Now, reading recommendations are displayed in a personal and unique page for each member, based on social interactions within the Widbook network, which, as of this February, has more than 200,000 members worldwide. Founded in February 2013 by Flávio Aguiar, André Campelo and Joseph Bregeiro, Widbook opened a San Francisco office at the end of last year,
Widbook describes itself as a “global community of writers and readers” with access to different stories in e-book format. Users create a profile on the social network, and then can write books, articles, recipes, tips, and posts, and can then go on to share content on social networks (Widbook is integrated with Facebook, Twitter and Evernote). The service is free of charge.
In all, over 12,000 works are being written, with 3,000 already published. The strongest concentration of members, according to the company, is in the United States, followed by Brazil and India. One element of the platform centers on collaboration— writers can publish one chapter at a time, or can write e-book in concert with another user.
The platform was originally developed as a tool for a university professor to write and collaborate on projects with students and colleagues, according to Aguiar, who acts at CEO. “But, when idea attracted the attention of other educational professionals, I recognized a gap in the market for building digital collaborative projects in an e-book format, and founded Widbook,” he said.
Looking forward, Aguiar said he wants to focus on the fundamental goal of Widbook. "We want to engage people to read and write more and better,” he said. “Our mission is to enable people to share stories, reveal new writers and improve the writing and reading experience of e-books."
