According to the latest quarterly report on visitors to Wattpad, an online writing community and social networking site focused on e-books on mobile phones, social networking between writers and readers is increasing; reading on mobile phones continues to grow around the world and the iPhone is the dominant mobile device used for reading in English speaking countries. Wattpad claims to attract about 2 million visitors a month and claims its members generate more than a million downloads of its content each month.
According to Wattpad’s report, 40% of its users make contact with or comment on the work of writers at the Wattpad site. Wattpad also claims a large international audience and reports that about 42% of the visitors to the site access English language content followed by Vietnamese speakers who represent about 35% of the traffic on the site. 67% of Wattpad’s English speaking visitors come from the U.S. with about by 14% of English speakers coming from the U.K.
Wattpad members, the report claims, also balance their reading between accessing content on the site through their personal computers and on mobile devices. In English speaking countries online access through the PC was the dominant mode of reading content with 58% of English speaking visitors using a PC (40% of that from the U.S.) rather than a mobile device. Visitors from non-English speaking countries are more likely to access Wattpad’s content through a nonsmart-mobile phone, generally more affordable phones.
Among mobile phone devices, the iPhone is the most popular device used by English speakers (82%) although the report also notes that the iPhone is growing in popularity in Japan and Spain. Outside English speaking countries, Java-based mobile phones (roughly, though not completely, cheaper mobile phones that are not smart phones) are the most popular.
Wattpad attracts readers interested in its online writing community and the original content uploaded by its members. The site allows members to develop a network of followers who comment on works in progress. Content is free to download and the site is completely supported by advertising. Wattpad specializes in making its content available for mobile devices of all kinds—rather than dedicated e-book readers—and since its launch in 2006 has aggregated a large community of readers.
While Wattpad cofounder Allen Lau claims the site records roughly 10 million “sessions” a month by visitors to the site, he also acknowledges that it is difficult to track “unique” visits by mobile phone users. Lau said the site’s 10 million “sessions” can be visits or revisitations and he also claims the average time of a “session,” or the time spent visiting, reading and commenting on Wattpad, is about a half hour. The site also markets itself to traditional publishers as a likely source for writing talent as well as a large audience of engaged readers potentially interested in a wide variety of branded e-books.
Lau said Wattpad content is now available via the Sony reading device and on the iPad. He said the site continues to attract a growing community looking for content online and credited the surge to the rise of phone data plans—carrier billing that encourages online access along with voice transmission. He noted that while English speaking Wattpad users tend to read on their desktops or laptops, he believes that readers are using PCs and mobile phones interchangeably. “People often start reading on their PC and continue reading on their phones. The distinction between reading on a PC or a laptop is becoming blurred,” Lau said.
