A couple of months ago, we began to roll out a new multimedia feature. The new feature lets writers use multimedia elements likes GIFs, images, and videos in stories to create graphic novels, travel diaries, fashion blogs, and more. They can also insert media into existing stories to create a more immersive entertainment experience for readers. Since the roll out, the community has shared hundreds of inventive and original stories filled with rich multimedia.

Mixed media stories from major brands
Sony Pictures is the first entertainment brand to leverage inline multimedia. To promote the upcoming release of Pride, Prejudice and Zombies (PPZ), the studio commissioned Wattpad writer Jen Wilde to create a zombified fanfiction of AFTER, an international bestseller and Wattpad favorite with over one billion reads.

Shared on the official PPZ profile, the AFTER + Zombies story puts main characters Tessa and Hardin in the middle of a deadly zombie outbreak. Images, GIFs, and videos, including the official movie trailer, enhance the story experience and also build excitement for the upcoming release. 

Coca-Cola took advantage of the new multimedia feature for their holiday campaign on Wattpad. The brand invited writers of some of the most popular Wattpad stories to share a letter to Santa, written from the perspective of their fictional characters. The letters included branded images to reinforce the brand’s spread happiness and #ShareACoke message.

WE.org, the organization that empowers people to change the world, uses multimedia to take fans behind the scenes at WE Day celebrations. The Off the Stage story on Wattpad features video interviews with celebrities like Shawn Mendes and Selina Gomez, as well as photos and video clips from WE Days held around the world.

A second non-profit, Kiva, has also joined the community and will take advantage of the multimedia storytelling capabilities on Wattpad. The micro-lending platform is serializing Dreams, stories about the people and ideas that benefit from Kiva micro-loans.

Comics and graphic novels now available

The introduction of multimedia has also led to the very first comic on Wattpad, courtesy of DC Comic’s Vertigo Imprint. Vertigo shared the Black & White preview of Lucifer exclusively on Wattpad.

Transmedia production company Nanomyte Studios, has also released Injection, a serialized comic for the Wattpad community. Injection features static graphics as well as animated scenes.  

Walt Disney Studios animator, illustrator, and author Brian Kesinger joined Wattpad to share Otto and Victoria, a illustrated story that chronicles the adventures of a young Victorian lady and her pet octopus. He is also serializing his comic The Intrepid Molly McGuinness on the platform. Brian also created a Star Wars and Calvin and Hobbes mashup illustration exclusively for the Wattpad community. 

Comic industry legend Dave Elliott has brought his acclaimed series, The Weirding Willows to Wattpad. The graphic novel mashup takes characters from classic fairy tales, horror, fantasy, and sci-fi literature and completely reimagines them. Dave is using Wattpad’s multimedia feature to create an entire Weirding Willows world, complete with field guides and new artwork for fans.

Exclusive content from horror legends and social influencers
Best known for having written the novels that became the Hellraiser and Candyman movies, Clive Barker is one of the world’s premier authors of horror and fantasy literature. On Wattpad, Clive shares an exclusive version of The Book of Blood that features dark and creepy art.

The Betches, the site for millennial women, shares weekly recaps of The Bachelor with fans on Wattpad. The recaps feature The Betches’ trademark snark complemented with reaction GIFs and other multimedia. The Betches will also share their all-time favorite Bachelor moments, as well as provide a sneak peek of their new book, I Had a Great Time and Other Lies … exclusively on the platform.

Comedian Grace Helbig share essays from her new book Grace & Style: The Art of Pretending You Have It exclusively on Wattpad before the book release later this month. The essays on Wattpad include images, GIFs, and videos to make the content come alive.  

Inventive stories from the Wattpad community
Many Wattpad writers have also adopted the new feature to bring their stories to life. Bel Watson shared a story composed entirely of text messages, and Rebecca Sky inserted custom illustrations into her story A Lifetime According to Karma Rose.

Version One Ventures, a top early-stage investment fund, is using graphs and other images in their non-fiction story A Guide to Marketplaces to illustrate marketplace principles and practices.

Since 2006, Wattpad has radically changed the way people discover and share stories. As the first platform to connect readers and writers on a global scale, we’re eager to see how the launch of multimedia will continue to push the boundaries of storytelling in today’s mobile and social age.

Every month, people spend 13 billion minutes on Wattpad and romance is one of our most popular categories. This got us wondering: What kind of stories peak around Valentine’s Day? Are there topics or people that spike on this day of love?  

This year on Valentine’s Day, people spent 64 million minutes reading romance stories on Wattpad. Historically, we similar spikes in engagement around this holiday. Check out the infographics to learn more.

Love Wins

Around Valentine’s Day, people spend more time reading LGBTQ Stories. In 2016, 15.5 million minutes were spent reading stories tagged LBGT on Valentine’s Day. The Wattpad community appreciates love in its many forms.  Last year we launched our official LGBTQ+ profile,  and we’re proud to see that love wins on Valentine’s Day.

We Spend Millions of Minutes Reading Romance

Unsurprisingly, last year people spend more time reading romance stories Valentine’s Day than any other genre.

The State of Love:

Across the United States, we wanted to find out, which states spent the most time escaping into romance stories on Valentine’s Day?

We also teamed up with Mashable and Buzzfeed Canada to showcase some of our best findings. Find out what each U.S. state searched for leading up to Valentine’s Day on Mashable , or read this Buzzfeed Canada article about the top Valentine’s Day ships.

At Social Media Week New York, Wattpad Head of Global Brand Partnerships, Suzanne Spence, will moderate a panel called Your Brand, Their Story: Exploring The Shift In Content Creation and Consumption. The event takes place at the SVA Theatre (EDU Stage) on Friday February 26th at 9AM.

Some of the brightest minds in marketing and innovation from Coca-Cola, General Electric, and Vaynermedia will join Wattpad Star, Kevin Fanning (K Fan) to discuss what it takes to engage millennials in today’s TL;DR world

The panel will also discuss brand storytelling at its best and share insights drawn from invaluable experiences out in the field with real campaigns.

Thanks to Wattpad’s massive community, we’ve learned a thing or two about marketing to millennials. Today’s under-30 crowd have high expectations for branded content and a low tolerance for advertising. They expect to be entertained and engaged by their brand experiences. Brand storytelling is a great way to reach this demographic because it’s a win for both the audience and the brand, when done right.

If you’re in NY this week for Social Media Week, be sure to check out this excellent panel.

In 2013, Emily Lindin did something incredibly brave. She shared her grade-school diary that chronicled her experiences being labeled the school ‘slut’ with the world. Emily hoped it would put a spotlight on an issue young women face all too often: Slut shaming. Her diary, The Unslut Project has over 14 million reads and thousands of comments on Wattpad. People around the world have spent more than 4,000,000 minutes reading about Emily’s experiences.

The Unslut Project is the first non-fiction story on Wattpad to be published. The edited and expanded memoir, published by Zest Books, has exceeded all expectations. A reprint is underway to keep up with demand. Emily – with the help of her fans and supporters – has also produced a related documentary called:  UnSlut: A Documentary Film. It is currently being screened in theaters, community centers, schools, and living rooms all over the world.

Emily proves that passion and community-focused storytelling can propel causes and raise awareness of important issues. She has mobilized a global community to try to eradicate slut shaming and sexual bullying from society simply by serializing her diary on Wattpad, adding additional commentary from her older self, and encouraging others to share their own  experiences through the Your Unslut Project story on Wattpad.

Today Emily Lindin is one of the most recognized opponents of slut-shaming. The UnSlut Project’s viral popularity transformed her from writer to advocate. You can learn more about Emily Lindin and The UnSlut Project, here.

If you have a cause or are a non-profit and want to learn how to use Wattpad to reach new generation of supporters, visit our how-to page.

Wattpad launched a new website to provide support, advice, and inspiration for nonprofits who want to engage audiences with unique content related to their charitable initiatives.

The Wattpad community is passionate about social change, and cause-based content is already popular on the platform. Nonprofits can take advantage of Wattpad’s global reach to inspire and connect with a new generation of supporters. The dedicated website for nonprofits outlines simple ways these organizations can connect with a diverse, young audience of 40 million people and share content that advances their philanthropic efforts.

Here are a few reasons why nonprofits find success on Wattpad:

1) Some notable non-profit organizations are already on Wattpad

There are already some great examples of well-known nonprofit organizations on Wattpad today. Doctors Without Borders has amassed over 55,000K followers to their profile. Their aim is to share inspiring stories from the field to shed a light on what their organization and field workers deal with on a day to day basis. The stories are inspiring, heart breaking, and beautiful all at the same time.

In addition to Doctors Without Borders, WE.org is also on Wattpad. The organization shares stories about how WE.org changes the world with inspiring stories about community transformation and simple acts of love.

Kiva has a profile on Wattpad and shares inspiring photos and stories about people in other countries with big dreams. These stories provide touching backstories about the entrepreneurs available to support for as little as $25.

2) Wattpad already has a passionate and captive audience

Wattpad has more than 40 million people using the platform each month and they spend more than 13 billion minutes per month engaged in stories. So nonprofits can post their content to an audience that already exists, rather than doing the arduous work involved with building a blog readership and trying to promote content on other channels. Building an audience takes time, and while there is still work involved with building a network on Wattpad, half of that work is already done because the audience is already on Wattpad. The community gets excited when they come across a cause that they care about or an organization with whom they are already familiar.

3) Cause-based content is already popular on Wattpad

Wattpad is a great place to start a movement and mobilize a group of young people to take action on issues facing them or the world at large. This type of content isn’t new on Wattpad. In fact, there are several examples of cause-based profiles on Wattpad organized by users. Emily Lindin kept a diary when she was 11 years old. Classmates bullied and teased her and called her a slut. Emily turned to Wattpad 15 years later to publish her diary entries exactly the way her 11 year old self wrote them, in an attempt to help other girls going through the same thing. The story she shared, called The Unslut Project, has amassed over 14 million reads on Wattpad and resonates with young girls of all ages.

Another popular movement on Wattpad is No More Bullying. This group claims that 90% of social media-based bullying is ignored. They encourage and prompt users to be the other 10% who stands up for their peers by taking action and raising awareness.

Other cause-based initiatives like Talk the POC and Free the LGBT advocate for underrepresented minorities on Wattpad by sharing their stories and encouraging the community to write more stories that feature these groups.

Nonprofits do important work and create huge impact in many regions of the world. We are delighted to support these champions of change by providing a place for nonprofits to share and connect with an audience that cares.

While fiction can help us escape into imagined worlds, stories based on fact help us connect and find meaning in the world we live in. Last month, people spent 18 million minutes reading nonfiction stories on Wattpad. Many of these stories were shared by nonprofit organizations like Doctors Without Borders and WE.org, as well as individuals in the community who champion for social change like Emily Lindin with her story, The UnSlut Project.  

Nonprofits have the potential to showcase their inspiring work in a way that fosters community. The Wattpad community is active and engaged. People use comments, messages, and even art to connect with, support, and promote the stories that have moved them. If you want engage with supporters around the world, it’s as easy as joining Wattpad and sharing your story with the passionate community.

On Wattpad, people use stories to highlight issues like diversity in fiction, body positivity, as well as their travel adventures and memoirs. While nonfiction represents a small percentage of the more than 200 million original story uploads currently on Wattpad, the category is growing quickly. Because Nonfiction is a smaller (but growing) category on Wattpad, discoverability is much easier, and in fact, our data shows that nonfiction is one of the most underutilized ways to reach a massive audience.

One of the best tools to leverage for discoverability are story tags. Story tags give people the ability to identify keywords and themes that will attract audiences. Tags also help your story reach the people who are searching for content related to your organization or mission. Top performing profiles use at least 10 tags per story. Here are some of the top tags for nonfiction stories on Wattpad.

Wattpad loves to see important causes and conversations flourish in the community. To learn how your organization or cause can use Wattpad, check out this page.

Today, the latest installment of the Divergent franchise, Allegiant, hits screens across North America. The bestselling novels and blockbuster films have generated a huge community of fans, many of whom take their love for the series to the next level on Wattpad.

The dystopian themes of Divergent have inspired thousands of people across the Wattpad community. Since Fall of 2014, 775 million minutes were spent with over half a million original story uploads related to top story tags in the Divergent universe.

Interestingly, engagement on Wattpad coincides with various marketing and promotion milestones for the film. This makes sense, especially when a highly anticipated movie is released. Fans want to prolong their relationship with the film, and once it’s over, Wattpad offers them a way to hang on to that world.

Check out the infographic below for a quick overview of our findings:

The Divergent fandom is one of many hyper-engaged communities on Wattpad. A wide range of innovative entertainment and consumer brands use Wattpad to reach these audiences through our Brand Stories offering. For brands and marketers, Wattpad stories provide a unique source of evergreen engagement for entertainment-hungry fans.

As the graphic above shows, a huge opportunity exists for marketers during the moments between large announcements and official release dates. If you’re a brand that wants to learn how to create awareness through the power of communities, check out our business page, here.

Content discovery is a massive challenge for any user-generated content platform. With millions of stories available on Wattpad, our product and engineering teams work tirelessly to ensure the right content is put in front of the right people, and the global community can search and navigate this content with ease.

We recently rolled out a new home experience – the first screen you land on when you open the app, or log in to wattpad.com – to help connect people with the content that matters most to them.

The new browse-focused experience caters to people looking for something to read, without anything specific in mind. It leverages a combination of user data and social connections to provide a personalized discovery experience. This machine learning system will evolve and learn based on a user’s actions (stories read, past votes, profiles followed, etc.) to serve up a variety of relevant content recommendations. As a result,  when people search for their next favorite story on Wattpad, the new experience will return a series of story and profile suggestions based on their preferences, as well as the preferences of people within their social graph.

To learn more about how Wattpad tackled the issue of content discovery, check out Product Manager Seema Lakhani’s case study. The related engineering process is covered in more detail here.

At Wattpad, community is at the heart of everything we do. This latest product update makes it easier for people to discover relevant content and the stories they’ll love.

Today marks a moment that comic book fans around the world have been waiting for: the release of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. Since the first trailer was released in April, people have spent over 165 million minutes reading Batman and Superman-related stories on Wattpad.

These titans of fiction are finally set to clash on the silver screen and the question on everyone’s mind is: Who Wins?

At Wattpad, we know the amount of time people spend reading stories about their favorite characters can be a powerful way to measure fan support. Our data team crunched the numbers, and there’s a clear winner on Wattpad. Check out the findings:

Like we saw during the promotion of the Allegiant movie in the Divergent Series, time spent on Batman and Superman-related stories on Wattpad spike soon after trailer releases and other sneak peaks of the movie. Now that the official movie is out, we expect to see another wave of content created by fans who want to extend their experience off the big screen.  

If you’d like to learn more about the Batman v Superman data, or want to find out how Wattpad data can support your next news story, get in touch through our press page.

On Wattpad, humor is a way to connect with others. After all, sharing a laugh is often the quickest way to relate to someone else. In the last 30 days, people spent over 150 million minutes reading humorous stories on Wattpad. That’s roughly 285 years worth of laughter!

As the Internet spreads further into our daily lives, the way we convey emotion online becomes all the more important. Today people comment inline instantly with their mobile devices. They LOL, they haha, they react. It all makes you wonder, just how similar is our online laughter internationally?

Since tomorrow is April Fools’ Day, we reached out to our international community team to find out more about how people around the world LOL on Wattpad. Turns out online laughter is itself, kind of funny. Check out their insights below:

How Does the World LOL?

French: In French,  you have two defaults. mdr (mort de rire) and ptdr (péter de rire). In English, these translate to either dying or exploding from laughter. Mon dieu, France!

German: A unique chuckle in German can be found in *g* or *grins*. To make their grins larger, some Germans write *ggg* or *sfg* (super fiesen grinsen = super horrible grin). We’re not exactly sure why a grin should be horrible, but it might have something to do with this:        

Portuguese: The hahaha in English becomes kkk or hue in Portuguese. According to our experts, theses characters can be repeated endlessly depending on the level of funny. The passive agressive ‘K’ sounds a lot funnier in Portuguese.  

Russian: Similar to how other languages modify haha, Russian takes the H and throws caution to the wind, replacing it with an X. In Russian, xaxa, xexe, and лол (lol) are your best bets.

Spanish: Jajaja is the Spanish equivalent to the English, hahaha. If you’re asking yourself why, it is due to the J in Spanish being pronounced like the English H (a reminder for the next time you order jalapeños).

Tagalog: Taglish is mix of the Tagalog and English languages. In Taglish the haha is inverted as ahaha, ahehehe, or replaced with loooool.

The Universal Sign of Hilarious: According to our international community team, there is one way to express laughter that transcends language – the keyboard smash. The next time your ribs are splitting with laughter, hit that caps lock button and keyboard smash away, like so: AHAAHKHLDSFFNENAFNAEFNEFLNEGASJKNGSADGN;ALSDNG.

If you’re looking for a keyboard smash worthy laugh, there are over 5.5 million story uploads in the Humor category on Wattpad, with another 200,000 added every month. They’re stories that range from parodies on classic novels, to celebrities trapped in video games. Some provide great comebacks, others laugh about hilarious text conversations.

Check out the millions of funny stories available for free on Wattpad; you’re guaranteed to find a story that will tickle your funny bone.

There are people who claim they don’t suffer fools gladly. We think those people are probably lying.

April Fools’ Day is a 24-hour window where it’s socially acceptable to test the limits of our own comedic tomfoolery – and shed light on those who spread laughter the rest of the year, too.

Since humor is one of the most searched for categories on Wattpad, we spoke with Andrew Shaffer – a comedy writer who uses Wattpad to showcase and beta test his own writing, as well as to supplement his existing social media presence.

We wanted some tips and insight into how he uses Wattpad as a comedy writer specifically – and possibly to get some ammo for our own humor writing arsenals.

“I was already a published author with two nonfiction books, and one novel [Goodreads Choice Awards-nominated parody, Fifty Shames of Earl Grey],” says Shaffer, who joined Wattpad in 2013.

“But I saw a different readership on Wattpad from the one I could reach with paperbacks or ebooks—an international audience, reading stories from around the world.”

Shaffer initially began by posting some previously published material, just to test the waters. Soon, he found himself posting fanfic for Sherlock and Guardians of the Galaxy.

He discovered what an increasing number of already-published authors have found with Wattpad – a platform for stories that otherwise wouldn’t have found an audience, and a way to test reactions to new story ideas.

Shaffer will be the first to tell you that to deliver laughs through fiction is not an easy task. “It’s often difficult to know if I’ve written something funny until someone else reads it,” he says. “Like a stand-up comedian, an author needs to test out funny material to see if it works.”

Which is why he sends some of his work to beta readers, some to his editor, and, other times, tries some of his bits out on social media (including Wattpad).

“I’m currently serializing a rough draft of a parody [Catsby: A Novel] on Wattpad to get a feel for what works, and what I need to revisit on my next draft,” says Shaffer. “Feedback is essential for comedy writing. The more eyes on it, the better.”

Like many comedy writers, Shaffer finds that humor can be a great way to spark conversation about otherwise more serious topics.

“Nobody likes to be lectured to,” he says. “Especially with important issues, it’s very easy to get heavy-handed. If you have a point to make, humor helps the medicine go down. Comedy is the cherry flavoring.”

We wanted to know if Shaffer had any tips for crafting a solid punchline… possibly for our own personal research, but also for science.

“I think it’s fairly easy to write a good punchline,” Shaffer tells us. “People who aren’t writers do it all the time on Twitter, for instance. However, it’s more difficult to craft a good punchline that works within the context of a story. Does it fit the tone of the story? Does it ring true for the characters you’ve created?”

“The other thing about punchlines,” he reminds us, “is you need to throw out the first couple you think of. Don’t take the most obvious route—go in a different direction. The bigger the left turn, the funnier the punchline.”

Definitely some noteworthy intel.

As for what Shaffer finds most useful about Wattpad specifically, he points to the ability to serialize his work, and connect with readers through comments as he posts.

“When you’re writing a novel, you might spend a year or more alone with these characters in your head,” he explains. “But if you’re serializing something, and readers can comment directly on the work-in-progress, the writing process takes on an entirely new dynamic. It’s both fun and scary to hear from readers as a work is in progress! Wattpad has the ability to radically alter the drafting process.”

Shaffer, of course, is not the only comedy writer who’s found success on Wattpad. Kevin Fanning, for example, has garnered a huge following thanks to his hilariously creative writing, as well as YouTuber Grace Helbig. Because ultimately, comedic prose can take many forms.

“Humor can be sweet or it can be snarky,” Shaffer reminds us. “The only thing that really matters for me, though, is, ‘Is it funny?’”

For more comedy and tomfoolery, check out Andrew’s writing, the humor category on Wattpad, or write your own story.

To promote the fall release of his first novel, Binge, YouTube Star Tyler Oakley released excerpts of the book on Wattpad, to the surprise and delight of his many fans. To date, people have spent over one million minutes engaged with the excerpts –  which have been read over 720,000 times, and received more than 30,000 comments.   

The release of Binge on Wattpad also reveals some insights for online influencers who may be curious about how to use the app to their advantage.

A Wattpad survey found that 90% of people exposed to the excerpts thought favorably of Binge, while over half of readers said they were much more likely to purchase a physical copy of the completed book.

Tyler Oakley was one of the first YouTube stars to create and promote a Wattpad profile. For fans, Tyler’s presence on Wattpad connected them directly to one of their favourite online celebrities.

So what worked? Well, for one, the Wattpad community loves YouTube and Vine stars. Fandoms on Wattpad gather around everything from established franchises to online stars on the rise. If you have an established online presence, you might just have a passionate fan community on Wattpad.

Since Tyler’s successful release of Binge, other YouTube stars, like Grace Helbig, have joined Wattpad to promote their work and connect with fans. Just as exciting, new features like in story multimedia and improved homepage discoverability, give brands and influencers new tools to reach the hyper-engaged Wattpad community, in more ways than ever.

For more on how your brand can leverage Wattpad’s global community of influencers, and expand your reach to all new audiences, check out our business page, here.

To purchase your own copy of Tyler Oakley’s first novel, Binge, follow this link.

The Wattpad community is powered by fans. Every month, over 40 million people use Wattpad to connect over stories about the things they love. Celebrities, popular fandoms, and iconic characters are woven into many of the stories shared on Wattpad.

With the MTV Movie Awards approaching, we decided to take a look at our data to determine if we could predict MTV Movie Award winners based on the number of stories shared by fans.

Based on Wattpad data, here are our winner predictions:

Movie of the year

The Contenders: Avengers: Age of Ultron, Creed, Deadpool, Jurassic World, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Straight Outta Compton

The releases of Avengers: Age of Ultron and Deadpool contributed to a big year for Marvel. On Wattpad, however, one film has an edge: Marvels’ Deadpool takes the lead in this category with 327,000 uploads; 6,000 more uploads than  Avengers: Age of Ultron.

Combined, uploads on Wattpad for stories based on these Marvel movies are more than triple those for Star Wars: The Force Awakens – which will humbly have to accept the third spot.

The Winner: Deadpool

Best female performance

The Contenders: Alicia Vikander (Ex Machina), Anna Kendrick (Pitch Perfect 2), Charlize Theron (Mad Max: Fury Road), Daisy Ridley (Star Wars: The Force Awakens), Jennifer Lawrence (Joy), Morena Baccarin (Deadpool)

One actress dominates this field with over four times as many uploads as the closest runner up: Daisy Ridley takes the crown for her portrayal of Rey in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, with over 86,000 story uploads!

With almost 21,000 story uploads, Jennifer Lawrence sneaks past Anna Kendrick who takes second place about 5,000 fewer uploads.

The Winner:  Daisy Ridley in Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Best male performance

The Contenders: Chris Pratt (Jurassic World), Leonardo DiCaprio (The Revenant), Matt Damon (The Martian), Michael B. Jordan (Creed), Ryan Renolds (Deadpool), Will Smith (Concussion)

So, who’s got the best abs performance? In this category, Ryan Reynolds takes number one on Wattpad for his portrayal of Deadpool. He demolishes the competition with over 153,000 uploads.

Chris Pratt takes second place, followed by Michael B. Jordan in third.

The Winner: Ryan Reynolds in Deadpool

Best hero

The Contenders: Charlize Theron (Mad Max: Fury Road), Chris Evans (Avengers: Age of Ultron), Daisy Ridley (Star Wars: The Force Awakens), Dwayne Johnson (San Andreas), Jennifer Lawrence (The Hunger Games: Mockingjay — Part 2), Paul Rudd (Ant-Man)

This category was, by far, the tightest race. By about 20,000 uploads, Chris Evan takes best hero for his portrayal of Captain America in Avengers: Age of Ultron.

The hilarious Paul Rudd as Ant-Man scores number two with 8,000 Wattpad uploads over the closest runner-up. Sorry J-Law, looks like The Mockingjay will have to settle for third place.

The Winner: Chris Evans in Avengers: Age of Ultron

Best villain

The Contenders: Adam Driver (Star Wars: The Force Awakens), Ed Skrein (Deadpool), Hugh Keays-Byrne (Mad Max: Fury Road), James Spader (Avengers: Age of Ultron), Samuel L. Jackson (Kingsman: The Secret Service), Tom Hardy (The Revenant)

Who says villains never win? At number one, Adam Driver destroys the competition as the brooding Kylo Ren. This comes as no surprise to Wattpad, since reading time for the character and Star Wars spiked by almost 400% last December after the first trailer was released.

The Winner: Adam Driver in Star Wars: The Force Awakens

These days, fan voices are louder than ever. The MTV Movie Awards give us all a chance to appreciate the actors and films that have inspired some of the most viral fan-created stories on Wattpad.

If you’d like to find out more about the Wattpad community, or inquire as to how Wattpad data can support your next feature or campaign, get in touch with us through our press page here, or business page, here.

Coca-Cola’s Naughty or Nice campaign on Wattpad is up for a DigiDay Content Marketing  Award in two categories: Best Brand / Influencer Collaboration and Best Use of Native Advertising / Sponsored Content.

Through Wattpad’s Brand Stories offering, Coca-Cola’s three-week holiday campaign in December received 2.3 million reads in the US and resulted in more than 10.8 million minutes spent with Coca-Cola branded content by fans on Wattpad. The campaign marked the first official CPG multimedia brand campaign on Wattpad with images. Fans spent an average of 60 minutes engaging with Coca-Cola’s branded content, which is significantly higher than Wattpad’s already high average time spent per session.

To achieve this, Wattpad connected Coca-Cola with top influencers who created letters to Santa that were either naughty or nice. These letters were written in the voice of some of the most popular characters from some of the most popular stories on Wattpad.

The fans of these stories went wild for the new content and loved the holiday-themed experience that extended Coca-Cola’s rich history with the holiday season.

We’ll be crossing our fingers and toes until they announce the winners on May 18th at the Digiday Awards Gala in New York City!

Share your thoughts with us on Twitter by reaching out to us at @WattpadBusiness to let us know what you thought of the Coca-Cola campaign on Wattpad. Perhaps we can help your brand tell an award-winning story too.

If you’re a marketer interested in hearing more about Wattpad Brand Stories, get in touch with us through our business page, here.

Since the release of the first trailer for the new season of Game of Thrones in December, reading time for Game of Thrones fanfiction almost doubled on Wattpad. In that time, people have spent over 25 million minutes with stories related to the realm of Westeros on Wattpad (there are more than 80,000!).

As with many new forms of content, the lines are blurring. The fan community on Wattpad reshape the fantastic themes of George R.R Martin A Song of Ice and Fire in the same way that HBO has for the television series. The rich landscapes, captivating characters, and epic battles are remixed and reimagined for fans who want to experience the world for longer than an hour-long episode.

The numbers also reinforce what we know about super fans: When they run out of something to watch, they turn to Wattpad and delve into online stories about the fantastical worlds they love. Some read stories in anticipation of a new film, like Superman v Batman. Others look for romance on a day when love takes center stage. Whatever the reason, the world of fiction provides us with a much needed escape.

If you’d like to know more about how the trends and fandoms we follow at Wattpad can help your next editorial feature, get in touch with us through our press page, here.

In the last 30 days, people spent over 140 million minutes reading fantasy stories on Wattpad. That’s the equivalent of watching the entire Game of Thrones HBO series over 47,000 times!

With so much GOT engagement on Wattpad, we thought we’d ask our little birds what houses and which characters rank highest on Wattpad. Please be advised, there are spoilers ahead.

The Noble Houses of the Seven Kingdoms Ranked

In a stark contrast to how things play out in the HBO Series, House Stark takes the number one spot in terms of uploads on Wattpad. With 30,000 story uploads shared, the Starks are ten times more popular than the Lannisters, who take second place.

In a tight race for third place, House Targaryen takes House Baratheon by just 17 story uploads. In descending order, they’re followed by: House Tyrell, House Martell, and House Bolton.

Surprisingly, the house that gave us the bastard, Ramsay Bolton, outranks House Tully, Arryn, and Greyjoy.

The Champions of The Realm Ranked:

Jon Snow may be Ned Stark’s bastard, but he’s number one in our hearts. Jon Snow has double the number of story uploads when compared with the combined uploads for Sansa and Arya Stark. He also has twenty times more uploads on Wattpad than the self-proclaimed King of the North, Rob Stark.

The Khaleesi and Khalasar, Daenerys Targaryen and Khal Drogo, are second in terms of uploaded stories shared on Wattpad.

In the descending order of popularity (and rising order of ego?) we have Jaime, Tyrion, and Cersei Lannister.

Unsurprisingly,  the GOT characters who receive the least love in the series, also get no love on Wattpad. Jorah Mormont, Stannis Baratheon, Margaery Tyrell, and Ramsay Bolton round up the bottom of our list with very few related story uploads.

Did we miss any characters you love? Are you wondering how Wattpad data can help round-out your next feature? If so, get in touch with us through our press page, here.

This Thursday, Queen Elizabeth will celebrate her 90th birthday. Later in the week, the world will commemorate 400 years since the death of the great English bard, William Shakespeare. With these incredible milestones around the corner, we wanted to put a spotlight on the people who use Wattpad from in the United Kingdom (UK).

Last month, more than 1.3 million people visited Wattpad from in the UK. This active and growing community also spent over 220 million minutes reading on Wattpad in the last thirty days. This means the Wattpad community across the pond is one of the most engaged on the platform.   

Wattpad provides an easy way for UK writers to reach a total monthly audience of 45 million people. Since January, people in the UK have shared 1.5 million stories and many writers, like Leigh Ansell and Beth Reekles, have amassed huge followings on Wattpad by sharing entertaining stories. In fact, Leigh Ansell is one of 33 Wattpad authors featured in the first-of-its-kind anthology of celebrity imagines that will be in stores on April 26.

Apart from reading fanfiction stories, the UK community devours Humour and Short Stories on Wattpad. In this BBC Radio 4 interview, Lord Fellowes, creator of Downton Abbey, and Wattpad’s Head of Writer and Publisher Partnerships, Ashleigh Gardner, discuss why serialized stories and humour keep readers coming back.

We’re glad to host the active and engaged people who join the Wattpad community from in the UK. We hope that you’ll enjoy our next few posts over a spot of tea as we explore the insights related to Queen Elizabeth and William Shakespeare this week.

Today marks Queen Elizabeth’s 90th birthday. To celebrate her reign as the world’s oldest monarch, we looked at one of the most regal categories on Wattpad, Historical Fiction.

Historical Fiction captures the essence of specific eras and transports readers back in time. In the last 30 days, people spent over 18 million minutes with the Historical Fiction category on Wattpad. People also shared over 165,000 Historical Fiction uploads in that time.

Based on tags associated with Historical Fiction stories on Wattpad, the monarchy still thrives in Wattpad stories. Over half a million stories are tagged with king, queen, prince, or princess. Other popular tags include: royal, royalcourt, regency, debutante, duke, knight, england, victorian, and nobility.  

Interestingly, the Historical Fiction category on Wattpad is also one of the most popular categories for people over the age of 25. On Wattpad, many writers weave the aristocratic and opulent themes of past eras into their stories because they make for great drama.

Even off Wattpad, writers leverage historic eras to capture our attention. As writer Lord Fellowes has found through the success of his series, Downton Abbey, these themes hold the attention of various audiences, especially when delivered episodically.

For many, Historical Fiction on Wattpad is a great way to re-live the past as a way to understand the present. This historic milestone for the world’s oldest monarch will undoubtedly live on in the history books and fictional works we leave behind. We look forward to celebrating Queen Elizabeth’s 90th birthday with the world. Happy birthday your majesty – here’s to many more years and many more stories on Wattpad.

This Saturday marks 400 years since the death of the great literary force, William Shakespeare. Though much has changed since the time of the great playwright, Wattpad data shows that one thing has remained the same: People love poetry.

On Wattpad, people spent over two million minutes reading poetry in the last 30 days. The global community has also shared more than two million story uploads in the Poetry category on Wattpad. Globally, the majority of poems are shared in English, Spanish, Turkish, French, and Portuguese.

The Evolution of the Poem

The New York Times shared this article related to internet culture’s effect on modern poetry. The piece looks at the shifts in how we share and display our poetic verse. It seems today’s poets experiment with visual imagery to make their words more expressive and engaging.

In today’s society, social networks and multimedia affect how we share our stories. If Shakespeare were to share his sonnets on the Internet today, would he add visual elements? Would he encourage annotations and comments from readers?

On Wattpad, inline multimedia facilitates new ways to tell stories. We can pair words with images and directly interact with millions of people around the world. If your words have changed a life or shifted someone’s perspective, that person can now comment inline on the specific prose they love. This level of connectivity, paired with visual artistry, shifts the way we share poems but expands the reach of the poetry we share.

Four hundred years after the life of Shakespeare, we can reflect on how his works, characters, and techniques changed storytelling. Though poetry may be changing with the times, the classic works of William Shakespeare will always remind us that humanity is at the heart of the stories we share. After all, all the world’s a stage, and all men and women merely players.

If you’d like to enjoy some of the great works of William Shakespeare, you can access his public domain works on Wattpad, here.

At Wattpad, we believe that the future of entertainment will be driven by communities of storytellers and backed by powerful data and insights. Today, we are one step closer to this future with the introduction of Wattpad Studios.

Operating like a multi-channel network (MCN), Wattpad Studios will partner with the entertainment industry to co-produce Wattpad stories for print, film, television, and digital platforms.

With insights on approximately 250 million original story uploads and access to over two million creators, Wattpad is in a unique position to partner with the entertainment industry. Wattpad stories reflect what people love in life, on the screen, and in the depths of their imaginations; and as a result, Wattpad stories are always culturally relevant. With Wattpad Studios, entertainment executives can keep their finger on the pulse of pop culture and also reduce the guesswork involved during the traditional development process.

Aron Levitz has been promoted to head of Wattpad Studios to lead the new division. In this new role, Aron will connect the entertainment and publishing industries with original content created by Wattpad Stars, the biggest influencers on the platform. Previously, as the head of business development, Aron helped establish the company’s monetization strategy and launched Wattpad Brand Stories, a native advertising solution. He was also instrumental in launching the Wattpad Stars program that gives top influencers access to a variety of paid and promotional opportunities.

“Wattpad deals exclusively in the one thing that powers the billion-dollar entertainment industry – original and compelling stories,” said Head of Wattpad Studios Aron Levitz. “As the largest and fastest-growing platform for stories, we can easily spot the voices that resonate with audiences around the world and the stories that have an established fan base. Wattpad Studios will help industry executives make smarter decisions, faster.”

Wattpad Studios connects entertainment and publishing executives with Wattpad stories and creators. Using a combination of data and community insights, Wattpad can help media executives hone in on stories that have the greatest chance of commercial success from the roughly 250 million uploads shared on the platform. Other initiatives under the Wattpad Studios division include:

• Wattpad Stars – The engine of Wattpad Studios, Wattpad Stars are Wattpad’s biggest influencers and the most successful and popular writers on the platform. Chosen by the global Wattpad community, these writers understand how to craft stories that drives huge engagement. With incredible reach, both on and off the Wattpad platform, Wattpad Stars give brands, publishers, and studios access to a massive built-in audience.
• Wattpad Words – Wattpad Words helps publishers connect with millions of readers around the world, promote works to a new audience, test story ideas and concepts, and gather reader feedback in real-time.
• Wattpad Presents – Wattpad Presents is a partnership with networks and producers to adapt Wattpad stories for television. Some of Wattpad Studios early work includes a partnership with TV5 Network in the Philippines. TV5 has produced 200 episodes representing 40 Wattpad stories. The series has reached millions of viewers, and the network has seen a total viewership increase of 30 percent between 2014 and 2015.
• Wattpad Insights – Through Wattpad Insights, executives can subscribe to trend reports that identify and analyze the types of content that are trending on the platform. They can also access IP reports that identify the top trending IP on Wattpad as well as ‘hidden gems’ curated by Wattpad’s team. Wattpad also offers contesting opportunities that identify rising voices and fresh stories for new IP acquisition, as well as concept and property testing against broad or targeted audiences to evaluate potential development success.

“Entertainment and Wattpad stories go hand-in-hand. It’s why millions of people around the world spend 15 billion minutes a month on the platform,” said Wattpad Co-Founder and CEO Allen Lau. “The launch of Wattpad Studios will not only extend the reach of Wattpad stories, but will also help shape the future of community and data-driven entertainment.”

Wattpad Studios will drive revenue growth across the company. It will also create multiple paths to monetization for online writers who previously had limited opportunities to earn money from their creative writing. Up until recently, it was almost unheard of for major brands to commission writers to craft fiction on their behalf. Today, we have helped hundreds of Wattpad writers create original and entertaining stories for global consumer and entertainment brands. Collectively, Wattpad Stars have earned over seven-figures from the early work of Wattpad Studios, with some writers making more money on Wattpad project than they would from a traditional book advance.

Wattpad Studios opens up new opportunities for us to connect the most popular writers on the platform with an industry that depends on a constant stream of original and compelling stories.

We’ve already developed several strategic partnerships with entertainment leaders like United Talent Agency, Paramount Pictures, TV5 Networks and many others. We’ll be announcing some exciting projects in the coming weeks – stay tuned!

If you’d like to learn more about how Wattpad Studios can help you, please contact us.