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Scribd

From Alfawiki
Scribd Inc.
Company typePrivate
IndustryDigital media, Subscription services
Founded1 March 2007; 19 years ago (2007-03-01) in San Francisco, California, United States
FounderTrip Adler, Jared Friedman, Tikhon Bernstam
Headquarters
San Francisco
,
United States
Key people
Tony Grimminck (CEO)
ProductsScribd (digital library), Everand (subscription service), SlideShare (professional presentations)
Websitescribd.com

Scribd Inc. (pronounced ) manages three primary platforms: Scribd, Everand, and SlideShare. Scribd serves as a digital library containing more than 195 million documents. Everand provides subscription services for ebooks, audiobooks, magazines, podcasts, and sheet music. SlideShare hosts over 15 million professional presentations.[1][2][3]

Established in 2007 by Trip Adler, Jared Friedman, and Tikhon Bernstam, Scribd is based in San Francisco, California. Tony Grimminck assumed the role of CEO in 2024.

Founding (2007–2013)

Initially launched as a platform for hosting and sharing documents,[2] Scribd was inspired by Trip Adler’s observation of his father’s prolonged academic publishing experience at Stanford, motivating him to streamline online publishing.[4] After co-founding the company with Jared Friedman, Adler joined Y Combinator’s first 2006 cohort, securing $120,000 in seed capital before Scribd’s debut in San Francisco in March 2007.[5]

Often referred to as "the YouTube for documents," Scribd allowed users to publish their content directly online through an embedded reader that converted PDFs, Word documents, and PowerPoint files into web-compatible formats.[4][6] By November 2008, Scribd had attracted 23.5 million visitors and ranked within Comscore’s top 20 social media websites.[7]

In June 2009, Scribd launched the Scribd Store, enabling authors to sell digital content, and formed a partnership with Simon & Schuster to provide access to 5,000 ebooks from bestselling writers such as Stephen King and Dan Brown.Cite error: The opening <ref> tag is malformed or has a bad name

By October 2009, Scribd introduced customized readers for prominent media organizations including The New York Times and Los Angeles Times, while ProQuest began distributing dissertations on the platform.Cite error: The opening <ref> tag is malformed or has a bad name In August 2010, widely viewed documents hosted on Scribd—such as the California Proposition 8 decision and HP’s lawsuit against Mark Hurd—garnered viral attention, underscoring the platform’s influence.Cite error: The opening <ref> tag is malformed or has a bad nameCite error: The opening <ref> tag is malformed or has a bad name

Subscription service (2013–2023)

October 2013 marked the introduction of Scribd’s unlimited subscription plan for e-books, granting users unlimited access to its digital collection for a fixed monthly fee. This expansion included a deal with HarperCollins to incorporate the publisher’s entire back catalog. In March 2014, Lonely Planet’s complete travel collection was added, followed by an addition of 10,000 titles from Simon & Schuster in May 2014 featuring authors such as Ray Bradbury, Stephen King, and David McCullough.

The subscription offering grew with the inclusion of audiobooks in November 2014 and comic books from Marvel and other publishers in February 2015. In February 2016, Scribd transitioned from unlimited access to a credit-based system allowing subscribers three books and one audiobook monthly, with unused credits carrying over.

By February 2018, Scribd adopted a "constantly rotating" content model that provided unlimited access across ebooks, audiobooks, news articles, magazines, documents, and sheet music for $8.99 per month. However, certain titles were occasionally restricted within any given 30-day timeframe. Despite some criticism regarding its free trial requiring upfront payment information, Scribd’s subscription service remained a fundamental element of its business approach and market positioning.

Audiobooks

In November 2014, Scribd broadened its subscription library by incorporating audiobooks, becoming the pioneer service to grant unlimited access to this media type. This development represented a notable transformation in how digital content is consumed. By April 2015, Scribd further expanded its audiobook selection through a partnership with Penguin Random House, adding 9,000 titles from renowned writers such as Lena Dunham, John Grisham, Gillian Flynn, and George R.R. Martin.

Comics

Scribd launched comics within its subscription offering in February 2015, introducing 10,000 comics and graphic novels from publishers like Marvel, Archie, Boom! Studios, Dynamite, IDW, and Valiant. This collection featured popular series including Guardians of the Galaxy, Daredevil, X-O Manowar, and The Avengers. Nevertheless, due to insufficient user interest, comics were discontinued on the platform in December 2016.

Unbundling (2023 - present)

In November 2023, Scribd revamped its business approach by splitting into three separate products: Everand, Scribd, and Slideshare. Everand emerged as a fresh subscription service aimed at consumers interested in entertainment content such as books, magazines, and podcasts.

Timeline

Scribd initiated its first mobile plans for e-readers and smartphones in February 2010. By April of that year, it launched "Readcast," a feature that allowed automatic sharing of documents on Facebook and Twitter, while also integrating Facebook social plug-ins during the Facebook f8 Developer Conference.

On September 13, 2010, Scribd underwent a redesign to establish itself as a "social network for reading," strengthening its position within social reading platforms.

In October 2013, the company introduced an e-book subscription service offering unlimited access to its book collection for a fixed monthly fee.

August 2020 marked a strategic expansion when Scribd acquired SlideShare from LinkedIn, enhancing its global reach and content offerings.

Financials

The company’s initial funding consisted of US$120,000 from Y Combinator in 2006, followed by over US$3.7 million raised in June 2007 from Redpoint Ventures and The Kinsey Hills Group.

A second funding round in December 2008 brought in US$9 million led by Charles River Ventures with participation from previous investors.

In January 2010, David O. Sacks—former PayPal COO and founder of Yammer and Geni—joined Scribd's board to provide strategic guidance.

January 2011 saw Scribd secure $13 million in Series C financing led by MLC Investments and SVB Capital to advance its social reading platform.

The company raised US$22 million in January 2015 from Khosla Ventures; partner Keith Rabois also joined the board to support growth of the subscription e-book service.

In 2019, Scribd obtained $58 million in funding led by Spectrum Equity to accelerate expansion in subscription e-books and audiobooks.

Technology

In July 2008, Scribd launched iPaper, a web-friendly document format akin to PDF that allows users to embed documents directly into webpages. Developed using Adobe Flash, iPaper provided consistent viewing across Windows, Mac OS, and Linux systems without requiring file conversion, assuming Flash was installed. Later, Scribd announced support for iPaper on iPhone devices without Flash dependency. The format accommodates major document types including Word, PowerPoint, PDFs, OpenDocument, and PostScript files.

All iPaper documents are hosted on Scribd’s platform with options for privacy settings. The embeddable viewer maintains original formatting across different file types to facilitate content distribution. Initially dependent on Flash cookies for functionality, Scribd transitioned away from Flash starting in 2010 by adopting HTML5, enhancing user experience and browser compatibility. At the Web 2.0 Conference in San Francisco, CTO Jared Friedman highlighted this transition as integral to both the company’s technological advancement and business strategy.

Scribd once offered an API for external integration but has since halted issuing new API accounts as part of a strategic focus on its core offerings.

Since 2010, Scribd has expanded globally by launching applications for mobile devices and e-readers to increase accessibility beyond desktop computers. By December 2013, the platform was widely accessible through various app stores and supported numerous mobile devices, contributing to its growth within the digital content marketplace.

Claims of Improper Billing and User Fund Misappropriation

Scribd has been subject to complaints regarding the continued billing of former subscribers despite their cancellation requests, sparking scrutiny over its invoicing procedures and client management.

Copyright Violation Allegations

From its inception, Scribd encountered accusations related to copyright breaches. Within a year after its launch in 2007, the platform was issued 25 takedown notices under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Prominent authors such as J.K. Rowling openly criticized the unauthorized posting of their works on the site. Other distinguished writers implicated include Salman Rushdie, Ian McEwan, Jeffrey Archer, Ken Follett, Philippa Gregory, and J.R.R. Tolkien.

In 2009, Elaine Scott initiated legal action against Scribd, alleging that the company profited from unlawfully distributed copyrighted materials and sought to establish a class action suit for damages tied to severe copyright violations. This lawsuit was dismissed in July 2010. These legal experiences have influenced Scribd’s policies on content oversight and adherence to copyright laws within its operational framework.

Controversies

In March 2009, Scribd became the platform where passwords belonging to several Comcast users were leaked; these were subsequently removed following media attention. In July 2010, the screenplay of The Social Network was uploaded but swiftly taken down after Sony submitted a DMCA takedown request.

Access to Scribd was restricted by court order in Turkey in March 2013.

In July 2014, Disability Rights Advocates filed suit against Scribd on behalf of the National Federation of the Blind for non-compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) due to inaccessible content. Initially, Scribd contended that ADA requirements applied solely to physical premises; however, in March 2015, a U.S. District Court determined that online enterprises are also covered under the ADA. Following this ruling, Scribd agreed to enhance accessibility for visually impaired users by the conclusion of 2017.

BookID

To combat unauthorized uploads, Scribd introduced BookID, an automated system designed to protect copyrights by enabling authors and publishers to identify illicit use of their intellectual property. This technology examines documents by analyzing semantic information, metadata, images, and other components to generate a distinctive "fingerprint" unique to each copyrighted work.

Supported file formats

The platform supports a variety of file types including:

See also

External links

  1. ↑ Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named metz2013
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  5. ↑ Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named Cleverism1
  6. ↑ Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named macmillan2009
  7. ↑ Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named schonfeld2008
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