Wattpad CEO and co-founder Allen Lau is unveiling the next stage of the company’s “Grand Plan”
“Hollywood is a business making big bets based on gut instinct,” wrote Lau in his Grand Plan. “Our approach means making better bets based on data. We’ve already proved to the entertainment industry that great content is only one half of the equation - connection matters just as much. Wattpad uses built-in fandoms and data to drastically increase the success rate of adaptations.”
Lau says Wattpad has found a natural media partner in Netflix, another company with a data-driven approach to storytelling. But the company is also taking its storytelling destiny into its own hands. The Wattpad Webtoon Studio, a Wattpad asset that got supercharged with a $100 million financial commitment through the Naver acquisition, has more than 100 TV and film projects in development or production with partners on five continents.