Scribd initially started out as a document file sharing service when it launched in 2007. The company diversivied into selling subscriptions for their entire library of e-Books in October 2013. They have raised over $25 million during the lifetime of their business in order to stay operational. Today, the company has just announced they have raised another $22 million dollars.
Scribd currently has over 80 million users globally and has an e-Book portfolio of 500,000 titles, including New York Times bestsellers, classics, and reader favorites in every genre. A pioneer of the all-you-can-read model, Scribd’s subscriptions service allows readers to have unlimited access to more than 500,000 books from nearly 1,000 publishers, including Harper Collins, Simon & Schuster, Open Road Media, Lonely Planet, National Geographic, Rosetta, Workman, Wiley and Smashwords.
Just a couple of months ago, the company also expanded into digital audiobook, which will be the next big trend. Scribd CEO Trip Adler said the response “beat our expectations.” with users accounting for 180,000 listening hours.
What does Scribd intend on doing with the capital they have raised? The big plan for 2014 is to improve the overall product, with a focus on algorithmic book recommendations and the reading experience itself, as well as continuing to expand the content available in Scribd.
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.