Founding (2007 - 2013) : Scribd

Scribd /ˈskrɪbd/ is an American e-book and audiobook subscription service that includes one million
titles.[2][3][4][5] Scribd hosts 60 million documents on its open publishing platform.[6]

Founded in 2007 by Trip Adler, Jared Friedman, and Tikhon Bernstam, and headquartered in San
Francisco, California, the company is backed by Khosla Ventures, Y Combinator, Charles River
Ventures, and Redpoint Ventures.[7] Scribd's e-book subscription service is available
on Android and iOS smartphones and tablets, as well as the Kindle Fire, Nook, and personal
computers. Subscribers can access unlimited books a month[8] from 1,000 publishers,
including Bloomsbury, Harlequin, HarperCollins, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Lonely
Planet, Macmillan, Perseus Book Group, Simon & Schuster, Wiley, and Workman.[9][10]
Founding (2007–2013)[edit]
Scribd began as a site to host and share documents.[12] While at Harvard, Trip Adler was inspired to
start Scribd after learning about the lengthy process required to publish academic papers.[14] His
father, a doctor at Stanford, was told it would take 18 months to have his medical research
published.[14] Adler wanted to create a simple way to publish and share written content online.[15] He
co-founded Scribd with Jared Friedman and attended the inaugural class of Y Combinator in the
summer of 2006.[16] There, Scribd received its initial $120,000 in seed funding and then launched in a
San Francisco apartment in March 2007.[6]
Scribd was called "the YouTube for documents", allowing anyone to self-publish on the site using its
document reader.[14] The document reader turns PDFs, Word documents, and PowerPoints into Web
documents that can be shared on any website that allows embeds.[17] In its first year, Scribd grew
rapidly to 23.5 million visitors as of November 2008.[18] It also ranked as one of the top 20 social
media sites according to Comscore.[18]
In June 2009, Scribd launched the Scribd Store, enabling writers to easily upload and sell digital
copies of their work online.[19] That same month, the site partnered with Simon & Schuster to sell e-
books on Scribd.[20] The deal made digital editions of 5,000 titles available for purchase on Scribd,
including books from bestselling authors like Stephen King, Dan Brown, and Mary Higgins Clark.[21]
In October 2009, Scribd launched its branded reader for media companies including The New York
Times, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, The Huffington Post, TechCrunch,
and MediaBistro.[17] ProQuest began publishing dissertations and theses on Scribd in December
2009.[22] In August 2010, many notable documents hosted on Scribd began to go viral, including the
California Proposition 8 ruling, which received over 100,000 views in about 24 minutes, and HP's
lawsuit against Mark Hurd's move to Oracle.[23][24]
Subscription service (2013–present)[edit]
Screenshots of Scribd's subscription service
In October 2013, Scribd officially launched its unlimited subscription service for e-books.[11] This gave
users unlimited access to Scribd's library of digital books for a flat monthly fee.[11] The company also
announced a partnership with HarperCollins which made the entire backlist of HarperCollins' catalog
available on the subscription service.[25] According to Chantal Restivo-Alessi, chief digital officer
at HarperCollins, this marked the first time that the publisher has released such a large portion of its
catalog.[26] In March 2014, Scribd announced a deal with Lonely Planet, offering the travel publisher's
entire library on its subscription service.[27]
In May 2014, Scribd further increased its subscription offering with 10,000 titles from Simon &
Schuster.[28] These titles included works from authors such as: Ray Bradbury, Doris Kearns
Goodwin, Ernest Hemingway, Walter Isaacson, Stephen King, Chuck Klosterman, and David
McCullough.[29]
Scribd added audiobooks to its subscription service in November 2014 and comic books in February
2015.[4][30]
In February 2016, it was announced that only titles from a rotating selection of the library would be
available for unlimited reading, and subscribers would have credits to read three books and one
audiobook per month from the entire library; unused credits roll over to the next month.[31]
Scribd's unlimited service launched on February 6, 2018, and includes access to an unlimited
number of books and audiobooks, alongside unlimited access to news, magazines, documents, and
sheet music,[32] for a monthly subscription fee of US$8.99.[33] However, under this unlimited service,
Scribd will "occasionally [...] limit the titles that [members are] able to access within a specific content
library in a 30-day period."[34] The previous credit system for books and audiobooks was removed.[32]
In October 2018, Scribd announced a joint subscription to Scribd and The New York Times for
$12.99 per month.
Audiobooks[edit]
In November 2014, Scribd added audiobooks to its subscription library.[35] Wired noted that this was
the first subscription service to offer unlimited access to audiobooks, and "it represents a much
larger shift in the way digital content is consumed over the net."[36] In April 2015, the company
expanded its audiobook catalog in a deal with Penguin Random House.[37] This added 9,000
audiobooks to its platform including titles from authors like Lena Dunham, John Grisham, Gillian
Flynn, and George R.R. Martin.[38]
Comics[edit]
In February 2015, Scribd introduced comics to its subscription service.[39] The company added
10,000 comics and graphic novels from publishers including Marvel, Archie, Boom!
Studios, Dynamite, IDW, and Valiant.[30] These included series such as Guardians of the
Galaxy, Daredevil, X-O Manowar, and The Avengers.[40][41] However, in December 2016, comics were
eliminated from the service due to low demand.
Timeline[edit]
In February 2010, Scribd unveiled its first mobile plans for e-readers and smartphones.[42] In April
2010 Scribd launched a new feature called "Readcast",[43] which allows automatic sharing of
documents on Facebook and Twitter.[44] Also in April 2010, Scribd announced its integration of
Facebook social plug-ins at the Facebook f8 Developer Conference.[45]
Scribd rolled out a redesign on September 13, 2010 to become, according to TechCrunch, "the
social network for reading".[46]
In October 2013, Scribd launched its e-book subscription service, allowing readers to pay a flat
monthly fee in exchange for unlimited access to all of Scribd's book titles.[47]
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Scribd /ˈskrɪbd/ is an American e-book and audiobook subscription service that includes one million

titles.[2][3][4][5] Scribd hosts 60 million documents on its open publishing platform.[6]

Subscription service (2013–present)[edit]

Screenshots of Scribd's subscription service

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