Just in time for iPad International Launch – new version of Wattpad for iPad is now available on the App Store

If you want to see how our new app works, please check out our video:

Google, you can do better than this!

I am trying out Google Reader Play (their answer to StumbleUpon), and I got this LOL:

Mr. Google, social networks can only be bought, not built

Google is looking for a Head of Social to help them fend off Facebook.  Nice try but it is doomed to fail.

Just look at Facebook, YouTube, MySpace, Hi5, Wattpad, DeviantArt, Photobucket, Foursquare, Twitter etc.  They are all started and run by entrepreneurs (at least until they get bought).

Look at Orkut, Google Video, Yahoo! Photos, Google Buzz etc.  They are all started by big corps (and failed).

Looks like entrepreneurs are outscoring behemoths 30-0 and the trend will just continue.

Michael Arrington wrote an article today that summarizes it well – Product, especially social media (because it is so new), should be a dictatorship, not consensus driven.  In big corporation, consensus would always overrule dictatorship (unless you are Apple).

Mr. Google, nice try.  The new Head of Social will help but it won’t solve your social media problem.  It is time to go shopping.

Relax! You just got a neighbour (called Steve Jobs) who does not like you

The fight between Apple and Adobe is definitely getting more personal by the hour. Steve Jobs posted a giant public rant on one of the most-trafficked sites in the world, apple.com. Then WSJ exclusively interviewed Adobe’s CEO Shantanu Narayen right after with a very colourful response to Steve Jobs’ rant.

It is certainly fun to watch. While we have supporters from both sides, it is important to remember that iPhone/iPod/iPad is Apple’s creation. They have the rights to do whatever they want as long as it is legal. If your neighbour invites you to his house and promises you all-you-can-drink free beer, he reserves the right to change his mind and serve bottled water. He might mot win the best neighbour award, but it is really your choice to stay or to leave.

So, Twitter developers, don’t complain when Twitter starts competing with you.  They might not be the nicest guy on the block but they definitely have the rights to change their mind.

How did Wattpad start?

I have been asked this question frequently.  I figure I might as well post our history here.  Next time someone asks me I can just point him/her to my blog (and drive some traffic in the process – I am pretty obsessed with traffic LOL).

Many of you know that Wattpad was started in 2006 but few people know that the seed was sewed in 2002.  At that time I was CTO of Tira Wireless, a company that was focusing on mobile game and application publishing.  I prototyped a Bible reading app that ran on the most basic phones on the market.  Unfortunately, timing was not right for this.  Screen was too tiny (the most popular phone, Nokia 7210, can only display a few lines of text – go figure).  Memory was too small. Data plan was too ridiculously expensive.  I didn’t further pursue at that time.

Fast forward to the fall of 2006, I was planning to leave Tira and start something new. I went back to my recycle bin and resurrected the mobile e-reading idea.  One day while I was busy prototyping, Ivan instant messaged me.  I knew Ivan since 2002.  He was one of the early employees of Tira.  He left Tira in 2005 and moved to Vancouver.

In the instant message, Ivan said:

Hey Allen, I am creating something new.  Here is the link.  Can you give me some feedback?

Interesting enough, Ivan’s new idea was all about mobile e-reading!  72 hours later, I flew to Vancouver and met with him.  Wattpad was born (check out my post “What does Wattpad mean?” if you want to know why we came up with this name).

During that all important meeting, we decided the following:

• Wattpad should be 100% free to keep the “friction” low.  It allowed us to quickly test and refine the idea.
• It would be too time consuming for us to create and maintain our own catalogue.  Better focus on building the platform and let the community to decide what they want to read.
• Supporting as many phone models as possible was crucial.  This would ensure that lack of hardware support would not become a hurdle for people to try Wattpad out.
• We would create a website (which Ivan already did) for users to upload their content to the “cloud” (listen Google Books, we pioneered that).  To make the website looked more interesting, we would also display a list of new and popular content (which became “What’s Hot” and “What’s New” – a fixture in Wattpad now)

In retrospect, we were spot on.  Remember, it was 2006 – before Kindle was launched, before iPhone existed.  Even Facebook was merely a website for Harvard students to hang out at the time.

Wattpad was unofficially launched in late 2006.  Here is a screen shot of the very first publicly available Wattpad:

The first ever upload was Charles Dickens’ “A Tale of Two Cities”.  Here is the link.  Note the Wattcode is 1001:

http://www.wattpad.com/1001-a-tale-of-two-cities

Today, 3 years after we launched, our cumulative upload is approaching 400,000 – more written material than one can ever read.  Our number of monthly upload is approach 40,000 – that’s one Project Gutenberg per month!  We have delivered billions of pages from our library, one of the world’s largest collections of originally-created ebooks.  We provide a powerful creative outlet and social media for undiscovered and published writers to share what they have written and attract millions of loyal readers every month. And it was all originated from a meeting in the Vancouver Airport Food Court.

Wattpad for iPad in action

See Wattpad for iPad in action. I am camera shy. Well, usually. See what candies can do to me.

See Wattpad for iPad in action. Allen is camera shy. Well, usually. See what candies can do to him.

Wattpad is “In the spotlight” in the iPad store!

This is pretty cool if you ask me.  Unfortunately the image quality is subpar.  I put the blame on the iPhone camera but it was the only camera that I had at the time.

BTW, we do see a huge spike in downloads and daily usage of our iPhone/iPad app.  In fact, on April 1, thanks to the grand opening of the iPad store our daily downloads increased by 15 times over normal (yes, fifteen!) even though the iPad wasn’t available until April 3.

P.S. You can download Wattpad for iPhone/iPad from here.

Update: here is a nicer screenshot – finally have time to do a proper print-screen.

My random thoughts on the iPad

I have been using the iPad for over 24 hours now. I am not going to write a review. There are too many out there already. I just wanna jot down some of my first thoughts:

• The iPad is not really innovative or revolutionary. If you have an iPhone, you know what to expect.
• That said, saying the iPad is not game changing because of its lack of innovation is completely missing the point. It is the design that counts!
• Is it a must have gadget? It depends on your usage pattern. To me, it is $499 well spent.
• Expensive digital picture frame will cease to exist.
• The price point of e-readers must go much lower or even give it away and make money on ebook sales (similar to subsidized mobile phones).  BTW, Wattpad for iPad is featured on the iPad store.  Click here to check it out.  It is free as usual.
• It is an amazing, quite possibly the best computing device for content consumption. When I say content, it includes ebook, video, pictures, office documents or even email.
• It is not a great device for content creation. It is not designed to be a content creation device in the first place. Therefore, it is not a laptop replacement.
• It is, however, a netbook replacement if your netbook is primarily used for browsing, watching video, reading documents etc. The price point is low enough that I believe it will take away a good chuck of the netbook market, especially the more expensive one.
• More importantly, it is so ridiculously easy to use that you don’t even feel like you are using a computing device. A finger and some normal gestures are all you need. Even children or seniors are able to start using it without the start menu is a big plus. That to me is the most game changing aspect. Given that there are more content consumption people than content creation people, this might even become the main computer for a lot of people.
• Unfortunately it does not support Flash
• It is a bit too heavy for prolonged use.
• The bigger form factor will help spur the creation of a new generation of apps that we have not seen yet. Most of the board games that you can buy in toy stores can all be iPad-ized. Interactive children’s books is an another example. The list just goes on and on.

That’s it for now. I will post more in the next few days.

• The price point of e-readers must go much lower or possibly give it away and make money on e-book sales (similar to subsidized mobile phones). Nobody buys black and white TV anymore no matter how low the price is.

Free: Why Authors are Giving Books Away on the Internet

Here is an excellent post on Boing Boing that is based on a research from Brigham Young University. The research conducted interviews with authors who give away the electronic editions of their printed books.

Here is an interesting finding:

All of the authors were glad that they had made they work available for free, and most reported that they thought it had increased the reach of their work. Nobody perceived that sales had decreased as a result

This is not surprising to me at all. I knew this long time ago Wattpad has tens of thousands of writers who happily give their books away everyday.

My name appears on “The War Against Them – A Zombie Novel”

Wattpader Jose Alfredo Vazquez signed a print publishing deal a while ago. His book “The War Against Them: A Zombie Novel” is now available on Amazon and other bookstores.

We just received a copy today. My name appears in the acknowledgments section. I think this is super cool if you ask me