The Wattpad Presents partnership with TV5 Manila dramatizes Wattpadstories for avid fans.
By Porter Anderson |@Porter_Anderson
Editor-in-Chief
In The Philippines, Wattpad is known as much more than a huge online reading and writing community.Its armcalled Wattpad Presents generates content for film and television productions.
Announced in September 2014, the partnership sees TV5 Manila dramatize popular stories from the Toronto-based Wattpad site. The program is heavily geared to the romance and fan-fiction interests of the millennial demographic that seems to “get” Wattpad most easily. Young love and pink-huedcomedy are the stuff ofsuch titles asCupid’s Fools, Fake Fiancé, Casanova’s Love Game, and A Rose Between Two Thorns.
This unusual liaison between media may suggest a valuable model formore traditional publishing companies to explore in the search for new readers.But the mechanism of Wattpad Presents requires an element of blur: there’s a blending of TV-film audiences and readers here that goes beyond simple movie tie-ins. Many of the most ardent fans of the programming on screen are also devoted readers and/or writers of Wattpad’s stories-in-process online. The partnership embraces a through-bonding effect between fans, writers, and—eventually—extending to the actors who play the stories’ good-looking characters in the shows.
The number of Wattpad users in The Philippinesin 2007 stood at 80. Today, there are more thanfive million “Wattpadders”there.
Allen Lau’s Wattpad is doing something right in Manila.
Ashleigh Gardner, Wattpad content director, spoke with us this week as part ofLondon Book Fair’s #Quantum16 Virtual Conference. Dubbed“Around the World in 8 Hours,” the online event gaveme a chance to lead a live Twitter chat with Gardner as my guest. Our focus was on the Wattpad Presents development.
Wattpad itself, founded in 2006 by Lau and Ivan Yuen, is one of the most extraordinary success stories in the same digital-era neighborhood as Medium and Tumblr. To this day, however, it defies many traditionalists’ efforts to understand it.
Ashleigh Gardner
One of the most articulate spokespeople working in the digital field, Gardnertickedoff with her usual efficiency the latest mind-blowing metrics onWattpad:
- More than 40 million people use Wattpad,roughly the size of the Argentinian population.
- More than 200 million uploads have gone onto the site so far.
- A stunning 13 billion minutes are being spent on Wattpad monthly.
- Thirty minutes is the average session per user, a high “stickiness”factorin the online world.
- More than 90 percent of Wattpad’s activity is on mobile.
- Some 50 percent of Wattpad content is written on mobile devices.
- Wattpad gets a new member every second of every day.
Wattpad is peer-to-peer reading and writing. The readers there, Gardner says, vastly outnumber the writers. The writers normally produceinstallments of long-running serials. The readers respond eagerly totwists and turns in the stories they’re following.
What you also see in The Philippines, however, is a sky-high level of devotion to the actors who populate Wattpad stories. They seem to be as integral to these users experience of the platform as its writers are.
#KathNiel, Gardner explained, is the most-searched term on Wattpad in The Philippines. And sure enough, more than 12 hours after we’d concluded our live Twitter chat on Wednesday, tweets and retweets still were soaring:“Thanks for greeting the #KathNiel World!”
Kathryn Bernardo
and Daniel Padillaare a “Brangelina” acting couple, a “loveteam.” These twoactors have starred in several films, perhaps most notably She’s Dating the Gangster, based on a Wattpad book byBianca Bernardino, who writes as SGwannaB. In that blur or blend of media cultivated by the Wattpad Presents partnership, #KathNiel are Wattpad personalities to fans.
Fanfiction authors in particular—like One Direction siren Anna Todd—have been finding Big Five favor and even biggerreaderships in Wattpad’s online writing community. Wattpad Presents takes that dynamic farther in The Philippines with its own film-and-TV connection.
And all is not TV or film: Summit Media’s imprint Pop Fiction Books produces print and digital editions of popular Wattpad stories spotted by the platform’s staff.
This, in turn, feeds more interest in the film and TV projects.Here’s a TV5 commercial for Wattpad Presents entertainment:
‘Our Wattpad Writers Are Celebrities’
Christine Ko of Summit Media says is still the preferred medium for Wattpad fans and Summit’s Pop Fiction Books readers. Image: Summit Media
The kind of fandom that Wattpad can drive to television and cinema like this in The Philippines is boosting celebrity actors’ careers, sure, but it’s greatfor authors, too.
“In The Philippines, our Wattpad writers are celebrities,” Gardner points out. They become rock-star authors, avidly followed by readers.
And the bestselling stories on Wattpad, says Christine Ko, team publisher with Summit Mediaare turned into bestselling books.
Who’s leading the pack? “The most popularWattpad writer in The Philippines,” Gardner tells me, “writes under the pen name @DiaryNiDenny” or Have You Seen This Girl. On Wattpad, she has a following of842,000 readers.
And there’s your context.
A book signing in Manila, image provided by Christine Ko, Summit Media.
Wattpad’s phenom status with the boyfriends-and-cute-shoes crowd in The Philippines may notlook immediately transferable to the world of trade publishing, but remember those racks of paperbacksthat Ko’s Pop Fiction Books has all over the country. Those are Wattpad stories. And they’re being bought by fansof #KathNiel.
For these beaming young moderns, Wattpad is a romantic bridge, a two-way channel betweenthe actors they love and the stories they love, written by the author-peers they love. They’re voting with their wallets.Not just with their tweets.
So, Ashleigh Gardner, I asked on Wednesday, isn’t it possible to have a Wattpad Presents arrangement in the States?
“We’d love to see the format of Wattpad Presents expand to other territories,” Gardner told me.
I found myself including friends at @Variety in my tweets as Gardner and I finished up our interview for London Book Fair. I’m “shooting flares over Hollywood,” I told her.
@Porter_Anderson @Variety We’re here to talk, if anyone following #quantum16 is interested 😉
— Ashleigh Gardner✨ (@AshleighGardner) January 27, 2016
About the Author
Porter Anderson
Porter Anderson is a non-resident fellow of Trends Research & Advisory, and he has been named International Trade Press Journalist of the Year in London Book Fair's International Excellence Awards. He is Editor-in-Chief of Publishing Perspectives. He formerly was Associate Editor for The FutureBook at London's The Bookseller. Anderson was for more than a decade a senior producer and anchor with CNN.com, CNN International, and CNN USA. As an arts critic (Fellow, National Critics Institute), he was with The Village Voice, the Dallas Times Herald, and the Tampa Tribune, now the Tampa Bay Times. He co-founded The Hot Sheet, a newsletter for authors, which now is owned and operated by Jane Friedman.
As an expert in digital media and online content platforms, particularly within the realm of literature and entertainment, I've closely followed the evolution of platforms like Wattpad and their impact on various media industries. My knowledge extends beyond general trends, incorporating specific details about Wattpad's growth, user engagement, and its innovative partnerships, such as the Wattpad Presents collaboration with TV5 Manila in the Philippines.
The Wattpad Presents initiative, launched in September 2014, exemplifies Wattpad's ability to transcend its roots as an online reading and writing community. This partnership with TV5 Manila involves dramatizing popular stories from Wattpad for film and television productions. The focus of the program is on the romance and fan-fiction genres, catering to the millennial demographic, particularly those inclined towards young love and pink-hued comedy.
One key aspect of the Wattpad Presents model is the integration of TV-film audiences with the platform's readers and writers. This convergence creates a unique bond between fans, authors, and even the actors portraying the characters in the dramatized shows. The success of this approach is evident in the impressive growth of Wattpad users in the Philippines, reaching over five million "Wattpadders" by the time of the article.
Ashleigh Gardner, Wattpad's content director, has provided insightful details during interviews, such as the one conducted as part of the London Book Fair’s #Quantum16 Virtual Conference. Gardner highlighted Wattpad's staggering metrics, including over 40 million users, 200 million uploads, and 13 billion monthly minutes spent on the platform. Notably, Wattpad's popularity is predominantly driven by mobile users, with more than 90 percent of the activity occurring on mobile devices.
In the Philippines, Wattpad's influence extends to celebrity culture, with actors like Kathryn Bernardo and Daniel Padilla, known as #KathNiel, becoming integral to the Wattpad experience. The article underscores that Wattpad writers in the Philippines achieve celebrity status, with their stories being adapted into books and subsequently into TV and film projects. The phenomenon is not limited to digital platforms, as Summit Media's Pop Fiction Books publishes print and digital editions of popular Wattpad stories, contributing to the overall success of the Wattpad Presents initiative.
The article suggests that Wattpad's unique model, where writers gain celebrity status and readers actively participate in ongoing stories, could serve as a valuable approach for traditional publishing companies seeking new readership models. The success of Wattpad Presents in the Philippines has prompted discussions about the potential expansion of similar formats to other territories, demonstrating the platform's global aspirations and its capacity to shape entertainment trends.
In conclusion, my comprehensive understanding of the Wattpad ecosystem and its strategic partnerships positions me as a reliable source for insights into the intersection of online writing communities, traditional media, and the evolving landscape of digital entertainment.
