Comments on: Why is Scribd so hot?

By: madcap

madcap — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 04:32:35 +0000

“Scribd lets you publish and discover documents online. It is like a big online library where anyone can upload. We make use of a custom Flash document viewer that lets you display documents right in your Web browser.”

That’s great, cause if there’s one thing that my Web browser needed, it’s a way to display documents right inside it. I can’t believe Sir Berners-Lee left that feature out of the Web… what an oversight!

By: SandyM

SandyM — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 10:09:16 +0000

COME ON! – You guys with experience of this kind of business!

I would love to hear what you think about Scridb’s revenue model?
Surely they can’t be keeping investors happy through advertising revenue alone!

I’m currently planning a similar (not the same as) web only business that will generate real cash, not just hits.

So does any know the answer?

By: z

Thu, 19 Jun 2008 02:02:55 +0000

I don’t really understand why people can’t notice how great Scribd is compared to the other sites listed above. Two weeks ago I found Scribd because my local bookstore didn’t have a book I had to read for a class…guess what? Scribd had the book! So I decided to look for other sites like Sribd, and so far into my quest, I haven’t found a site that comes remotely close to what Scribd has to offer. For some reason many people keep referring to Docstoc as a pretty good site for similar items, for the past 15 minutes I’ve been checking for various documents that I was able to access through Scribd, and they had none.

Docstoc seems to forget that many people also read books/novels for leisure, and that the market for people like me who can’t seem to get enough of reading novels, is quite large (Borders and Barnes and Nobles aren’t doing bad). Once they are able to start providing more and have less little to no limits, then I might find the site remotely interesting.

By: CPLD

CPLD — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 21:39:41 +0000

Scibd is the best tool I have seen to upload documents, specially given that it has so low download time.

By: runner

runner — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 00:38:05 +0000

What are the possible revenue models for a company like this? I like the company but unsure how them make money down the line. with all the smart (and not so smart) people here we could come up with an answer(s).

By: chusubaxter

chusubaxter — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 07:21:40 +0000

i m in love with scribd one of the best thinks is that i dont have to sign up for the service to use it just 2 clicks and my stuff is up there that is searchable and google can bring up my docs that really amaze me but one problem that i have found with scribd is that my excel docs are not posted and been 3 days but they i think they are still qeued in there system :(

By: Charles

Charles — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 06:03:24 +0000

I’ve been using Scribd for a number of reasons. It’s superior to google docs’ PDF management. I can upload documents over 500 KB, search those documents and have them converted to other formats without worrying about using my own system’s resources to do it.

What I find best is the integrated reader feature. Granted, Mac and Windows both have readers, but I’ve run into problems with them when I have to switch windows. With Scribd’s reader I can continue listening to a document while working in another window or moving away from my desk. It has also proven useful when assisting those with other accessibility needs.

And forget the copyright issues. I can’t think of many who are going to read the latest harry potter in front of their computer. What’s thrilling me is the publication of older works, government documents and some great school papers. Had Scribd been around when the Bush Admin was pushing the EPA to destroy documents, we wouldn’t be sitting around today wondering what it is we lost - because everything shredded would be online for the world to see.

Google has been trying to do this for a while. This isn’t a fad, it’s where information sharing and document management is headed. Similar but less elegant strategies are making pay for use services a lot of money. Anyone who can’t see the value here isn’t paying attention.

By: Renish Ladani

Renish Ladani — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 10:52:25 +0000

Scribd is really HOT, I was searching for a website for uploading my M.Tech Thesis work, so that other can read it. and then I found scribd and i uploaded my thesis there.

By: jean

jean — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 15:10:18 +0000

scribd has some compelling content and they pioneered the ways documents can be shared…if you want to see a site that has monetized a site for documents check out (link) . Marketplace for documents.

By: Artashes

Artashes — Tue, 08 May 2007 17:20:40 +0000

Not only do they host copyright material, they make sure to remember your IP with the “traffic analytics”. What a great way to get sued!

Thank you, Scribd, for keeping everyone responsible.

By: Jay (living in First Life)

Jay (living in First Life) — Fri, 27 Apr 2007 07:04:44 +0000

Hype and more hype. Om - start featuring some real businesses please. Just because Paul Graham managed to convince someone at a VC firm to waste some part of their latest $300 MM fund means nothing.

By: Marie

Marie — Fri, 27 Apr 2007 04:40:56 +0000

(link) is even better than Scribd — higher quality material. It’s newer and therefore has less buzz so far (though it’s gaining) — started by Tina Seelig at Stanford. It has privacy controls, so you can set up private viewing areas for docs you only want to share with a certain group or certain people.

By: Hugh

Hugh — Fri, 27 Apr 2007 01:43:25 +0000

Breaking copyright law, sounds like they are YouTube of documents, let’s hope they don’t get the 1 Billion dollar lawsuit like Youtube.

By: Andreas

Andreas — Fri, 27 Apr 2007 00:17:39 +0000

Perhaps the fact that you can upload a DRM-ed PDF file and have the service convert it to a variety of formats is driving visitors?

It is indeed true that Scribd can strip DRM from PDF files, but I doubt that ability is driving visitors to the service (esp. as it is a rather unknown feature/bug). Talking about popularity - is Scribd really doing so well? 1600 views for today's most popular document (featured on the frontpage) - that's not mind-boggling...

By: bob

bob — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 08:17:25 +0000

As many here have pointed out, who needs to post their documents on a web site? I think in the closed circles of silicon valley they can create new needs that don’t exist yet. nobody really needs to watch videos on you tube but it’s there so I might as well used it. Same for this new service. I don’t need it but it’s there so I might as well use it. Or maybe does exist a necessity that Scribd satisfies but couldn’t it be more simply fulfilled by a normal, un-hyped, non-revenue generating web site. The point is that if you are a VC in the bay area your main interest is to find ideas for something that you can hype, make people believe they need it, grow it and then either sell it or use it to advertise. How about a web site where I can post my mood every day. 10M people end up posting their mood and all of a sudden you find your self with this new need of checking what’s the average mood in the new york area. So everyday, while you’re eating lunch at your desk you check it. Now (link) is the hottest thing, ppl with too much time in their hands blog about it, comment about the mood in Philly, the VCs who invested in it either sell it out or start advertising,… and here we have another great success. The point is not whether the website is useful or not. The point is to grab people attention and sell something to them. Our whole society is based on making “you” buying something. Grab people attantion and you can sell them stuff and get paid by the advertisers.
One more thing I always wanted to say: if you had a great company, you go public, you get 8bn $ from the public. Now your company is rich but you’re still not as the company really belongs to the shareholders; how would you take money out of it? how about creating some hype around a new thing, let’s say, I don’t know, something trivial, a website for people to post videos… inflate the whole thing enourmously… and then buy it (your new video website) for 1.5Bn. Nobody knows you actually own this new hyped company,… and voila’! you used the shareholders’ money to pay for something (worthless) you personally owned. Shareholders get the crap, you now got the cash.
YouTube better start making money soon for the shareholders sake. Welcome to Bubble 2.0

By: KR

KR — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 19:46:42 +0000

interesting discussion thread. if scribd can be the youtube of docs (copyright infrigements and all), the challenge will be for scribd to get to be a dominant site with tons of uniques and pageviews like youtube before the copyright holders clamp down and try and shut them down. youtube’s growth was so hockey-stickish, that by the time content providers decided that might not be so cool, they realized that it might be better to try and revenue share/collaborate w/ youtube versus fight them (with the exception of viacom). the media companies have not done a good job on using the web to distribute/monetize their content, so when a youtube, itunes, scribd? comes along, there is an opportunity to get their piece of the action from the community that these up-and-coming web companies provide.