If you were one of the millions of people who enjoyed the gentle romantic entanglements of Elle, Lee and Noah in hit Netflix romcom, The Kissing Booth, you might not know it, but you're already a fan of Wattpad.
The film, and its sequel, originated from a story posted to the storytelling app back in 2011, which had been read an incredible 19 million times before the streamer came calling. Its author, 17-year-old Beth Reekles, went on to earn a three-book deal with publisher Random House.
Not bad from a content sharing platform you’ve likely never heard of.
What is Wattpad?
Wattpad is a website and app on which writers, both amateur and established, publish their stories. Readers can interact with the user-generated content, offering their opinions on characters and plots – they can even leave notes next to specific sentences – in a way that allows would-be writers to shape their content to better serve their readership. The site says it reaches an audience of more than 90 million users, with content available in 50-plus languages, although stories are predominantly written in English.
With the news this week that South Korean Internet conglomerate, Naver, which owns global digital comics platform Webtoon, has acquired Wattpad for $600 million, the deal will increase that 90 million to a global monthly audience of 160 million users.
It was the brainchild of Hong Kong-born entrepreneur Allen Lau and Malaysian Ivan Yuen. The pair say they were each working on variations of the idea before coming together to create Wattpad in 2006.
“We were just too early for the technology to take off, but we stuck it through and I’m glad we did,” Yuen told his alma mater The University of Waterloo. Adding of the year 2007, when the iPhone and the Kindle launched: “The fact that we were already there opened up a whole new way for people to use Wattpad.”
What is on Wattpad?
In short, a lot of fan fiction. If you've ever wondered what it might have been like if Harry Potter had married Hermione rather than Ginny, or if any member of One Direction decided to quit dating models and start dating their fans instead, then Wattpad is your spiritual home. But that's not to say fanfic is the only literary genre on offer. There's fantasy, paranormal, horror, science fiction, humour, mystery, teen fiction … The list is endless and ever-growing, from the mainstream to the niche. And according to John Hunt Publishing, the most popular genres are romance, young adult and teen, and fan fiction.
On Wattpad, no-one need know how old you are, what your social background is, or where you live. Your readers can be anywhere
With its own direct publishing division, own literary awards – the Wattys – and an ability to connect writers with producers via their Wattpad Studios, the platform claims more than “1,000 original Wattpad stories have been published, produced, or adapted to TV or film”, citing deals with Netflix, Sony and Paramount among other major Hollywood studios.
One book, 1.6 billion readers
One of Wattpad's biggest success stories has been Anna Todd's After trilogy. Originally posted as fan fiction about former One Direction star, Harry Styles, a quick name change turned him into Hardin Scott.
The book has so far been translated into 35 languages, landing Todd a six-figure deal with publisher Simon & Schuster. Not to mention the two films it has so far spawned: 2019's After and its 2020 sequel After We Collided.
More impressively, her books have been read more than 1.6 billion times, generating more than six million reader comments.
So, is Todd a professional writer? No, she was a 24-year-old housewife with a new baby, living in Texas.
Wattpad appealed to Todd, as she told The Atlantic, because it enables writers whose work would otherwise "never see the light of day because their names aren't known, or they don't have whatever following, or they don't have experience in publishing".
Put into context, authors using traditional modes of publishing, need to sell books in double digit thousands to land themselves on the bestseller lists, but it’s worth remembering that readers are paying for those books, whereas Wattpad content is free. The money, however, comes later; just ask newly-minted millionaire, Todd.
World-famous authors on Wattpad
Another Wattpad story that translated to the small screen was titled Death to my BFF and racked up 92 million reads, leading it to be acquired by Sony Pictures Television, while the tale Light as a Feather was snapped up by Hulu, and Cupid's Match was turned into a pilot at CW Seed after it garnered over 36 million reads.
And for anyone feeling slightly snobby about Wattpad, bear in mind that the critically acclaimed author of The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood, is also a contributor.
"You can post your own writing. No-one need know how old you are, what your social background is, or where you live," she told The Guardian of her decision to publish on the platform. "Your readers can be anywhere."
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
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Director: Romany Saad
Starring: Mirfat Amin, Boumi Fouad and Tariq Al Ibyari
Who's who in Yemen conflict
Houthis: Iran-backed rebels who occupy Sanaa and run unrecognised government
Yemeni government: Exiled government in Aden led by eight-member Presidential Leadership Council
Southern Transitional Council: Faction in Yemeni government that seeks autonomy for the south
Habrish 'rebels': Tribal-backed forces feuding with STC over control of oil in government territory
SPECS
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The Matrix Resurrections
Director: Lana Wachowski
Stars: Keanu Reeves, Carrie-Anne Moss, Jessica Henwick
Rating:****
The years Ramadan fell in May
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Founders: Michele Ferrario, Nino Ulsamer and Freddy Lim
Started: established in 2016 and launched in July 2017
Based: Singapore, with offices in the UAE, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Thailand
Sector: FinTech, wealth management
Initial investment: $500,000 in seed round 1 in 2016; $2.2m in seed round 2 in 2017; $5m in series A round in 2018; $12m in series B round in 2019; $16m in series C round in 2020 and $25m in series D round in 2021
Current staff: more than 160 employees
Stage: series D
Investors: EightRoads Ventures, Square Peg Capital, Sequoia Capital India
Anghami
Started: December 2011
Co-founders: Elie Habib, Eddy Maroun
Based: Beirut and Dubai
Sector: Entertainment
Size: 85 employees
Stage: Series C
Investors: MEVP, du, Mobily, MBC, Samena Capital
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
