From the press release: Wattpad, the world's most social eBook community continues to expand their leading mobile presence with the announcement that a Wattpad application will be available in time for the release of the HP TouchPad. The Wattpad app is downloaded over 1 million times per month across 1000 different devices as readers search out new content and ways to connect with their favorite authors and other readers. Last month, Apple included the Wattpad app in its list of Top 100 Apps of all time and Wattpad has been the number one free eReading app on BlackBerry's App World for...

From their press release: Wattpad is reporting a record December, seeing a 20 percent growth over November’s traffic and 300 percent more visitors when compared to the previous year. This reading spike resulted in many novels crossing the 1 Million Reads landmark. The Android app saw the largest percentage of growth, with four times the usage in December as compared to the month before, furthering its gain over the BlackBerry. December also saw an increase overall in minutes spent on the site to 338 Million minutes a month. The iPhone, iPod and iPad app remains the largest driver of mobile traffic of all...

I've often said that mobile phones, not smartphones but plain old-fashioned mobile phones, are probably the ereading choice of the world. That's because a huge part of the world still lives in poverty, but even in those conditions a mobile phone can often be had. Now comes data that shows that Africa has over a half a billion mobile phone subscribers. Cellular-news reports: At end-3Q10, Africa accounted for 10% of the world's mobile subscriptions and was one of the world's fastest-growing regions - with the subscription numbers increasing 18% over the year to September - as a result...

From the press release: Publishers Weekly has teamed up with social reading community Wattpad to create additional marketing opportunities for self-published authors who participate in the PW Select program. PW Select is a new initiative launched by Publishers Weekly in recognition of the growing self-publishing trade. A supplement listing self-published titles as well as reviews for at least twenty-five titles will be issued four times a year to PW’s audience of booksellers, librarians, publishers, distributors, wholesalers, agents and other media. By highlighting PW Select titles and reviewed works on Wattpad, self-published authors have the opportunity to reach the widest possible audience. The trade...

Wattpad is now available in the Windows Marketplace. ...

From the press release: Wattpad ... and ShelfUnbound indie book review magazine announce the launch of the Wattpad + ShelfUnbound Writing Competition for self-published authors. The competition is open to any self-published writer who has an active Wattpad account {go to www.wattpad.com/contests for further details). The winner, as selected by ShelfUnbound editors, will have their work published and promoted on Wattpad and featured in an upcoming issue of ShelfUnbound. Entries may be submitted through January 31, 2011....

I've mentioned Wattpad before and said that for the developing world Java ereading on cellphones is the way to go. This has inspired a few skeptical comments by readers over the years. Now, Publishing Perspectives had interviewed Wattpad co-founder, Allen Lau, pictured above. According to Wattpad’s analytics, English-speaking readers accounted for 42% of total e-readers, with the next largest group being Vietnamese readers at 36%. Why Vietnam? “Our strong mobile support is helping us a lot,” says Lau, who originally hails from Hong Kong. “I think in Vietnam, most people don’t have access to computers, and if they do want that, they have...

I always find the quarterly Wattpad metrics report to be fascinating. It is one of the only regular surveys of ereading habits. Here is an excerpt from the latest report. You can find the full report here. Ivan Yuen, CTO and co-founder of Wattpad provides insight into the results: "We are continuously impressed with the variety of devices readers use to consume ebooks. Six to twelve months ago, people only thought about the major ereader offerings and the iPhone. But in the last quarter we've seen incredible growth in the usage of iPads and Android tablets, as well...

From their press release: In the first half of 2010, Wattpad has established cross-promotional partnerships with major self-publishing houses Smashwords, Lulu and Bubok. To assist writers in connecting with readers on the site, Wattpad is launching the Self-Published Writers Program, a new marketing initiative that creates additional value for the time authors spend promoting their work online. Authors who have accounts with one of Wattpad's Self-Publishing partners will be able to gain additional exposure through Wattpad channels based on their level of interaction. Wattpad provides a platform for self-published authors to expand their online presence to a dedicated reading...

From the Wattpad press release I just received. Bubok is the leading self-publishing service for authors writing in Spanish: Now, Bubok authors may connect their work with Wattpad's readership and increase their audience by using Wattpad’s unique social networking platform. "Bubok aims to fulfill the dream of publishing for many authors, but also help their work reach the widest possible audience. Giving writers the chance to make their literature available on Wattpad allows authors the opportunity to reach thousands of new users that may be interested in reading and buying their books,” explains Ángel María Herrera, CEO of Bubok. 
 Wattpad...

From the press release: Wattpad, the world’s most popular ebook community, and Smashwords, the leading ebook publishing and distribution platform, have announced a partnership that will open up new publishing opportunities for thousands of indie authors. Under the terms of the agreement, Wattpad and Smashwords will cross-promote each other’s services and have added integration so that Wattpad users can sell books via Smashwords and Smashwords authors can promote free works on Wattpad, including, works-in-progress, complete works, or serial ebooks on Wattpad. Wattpad operates a social network for writers to connect with readers and share what they have written. Wattpad receives over 10 million...

Just updated my iPhone and noted that the Kindle and Wattpad apps have updates. Kindle is "optimized for iPhone 4 Retina display". In addition it says the following features will be in the next release: instant word lookup on included dictionary with 25,000 entries and definitions look up words in Google and Wikipedia search inside the book on iPad The Wattpad app update says: improved reading screen, fix start-up when not connected to internet, fix library editing bug....