Scribd’s iPaper Plan

Om Malik, Tuesday, February 19, 2008 at 6:01 AM PT Comments (52)

Scribd, the San Francisco-based startup that was dubbed the “YouTube of Documents,” has finally become worthy of that sobriquet. While I don’t care much about community around documents, I love the concept of the dead simple sharing of documents. And that’s precisely what this 10-person startup that raised close to $5 million in funding from Redpoint Ventures has done with its new viewer called iPaper.

The company has also introduced an API that will make it easy for others publishers to plug Scribd into their systems. More on that later, but first let’s talk about their new iPaper, which CEO & Co-founder Trip Adler showed me over the weekend.

Like the YouTube video player, the iPaper viewer utilizes Adobe’s Flash technology. Adler says that it took the company about six months to develop this player; it replaces the older player, which was (ironically) based on Macromedia’s Flash Paper technology. Adler says this gives his company a competitive advantage over rivals including Adobe.

ipaper.gif
The iPaper app does pretty much everything you expect from Adobe Acrobat Reader, despite its tiny footprint. You can embed the documents, share them, do full text search, and there are many view modes. It is really, really fast — mostly because the document is “streamed” to iPaper instead of it being downloaded, like in case of Microsoft Office or PDF files. (I wonder why Adobe didn’t develop an iPaper viewer of its own. I guess they didn’t learn the lessons of online video.) The coolest thing about the iPaper demo was Scribd’s ability to embed Google text ads inside the documents being viewed. This makes non web-pages suddenly monetizable. The advertising revenues are split between the publisher and Scribd. I think this is an important development and explains why, unlike more enterprise-focused Docstoc, Scribd is focusing on the consumer market. There is no way for Google to advertise against non-HTML documents such as PDF format files. iPlayer opens up a big new inventory for Google. If the tiny startup can replicate the popularity of YouTube, it has suddenly made itself a possible acquisition candidate for Google. Of course, no one has been able to replicate YouTube and its success is something for Adler and his co-founders to think about.

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27 trackbacks so far

February 19th, 2008
8:09 AM PT

[...] Scribd iPaper | Video Demo | FAQ | Thanks Om. [...]

February 19th, 2008
9:27 AM PT

[...] morning, in conjunction with Scribd’s launch of iPaper, we’re announcing that OpenBox services will be available on shared file pages. This means [...]

February 19th, 2008
9:59 AM PT

[...] Funktionen von Desktop-Readern im Browser realisiert. Sechs Monate lang hat das Scribd-Team laut GigaOm an einem neuen Viewer namens Scribd iPaper gerabeitet. Hinter diesem Apple-like Namen steckt ein [...]

February 19th, 2008
10:16 AM PT

[...] | GigaOm. Más información | [...]

February 19th, 2008
10:16 AM PT

[...] More at GigaOM. [...]

February 19th, 2008
10:36 AM PT

[...] | GigaOm. Más información | [...]

February 19th, 2008
12:11 PM PT

[...] OM Malik’s post on Scribd’s iPaper prompted me to try the service and so far and am very intrigued by the possibilities. It’s easy to sign up and the viewer works great. Here is an example of an embedded document. [...]

February 19th, 2008
12:56 PM PT
February 19th, 2008
1:13 PM PT

[...] *GigaOMによると全文検索も可能、APIも公開になったようです。 [...]

February 19th, 2008
1:15 PM PT

[...] to say that I felt that old twinge of concern when I first saw Scribd, which just re-launched with a new format and features, including its own Flash-based document viewer. I think the service is great, but the business [...]

February 19th, 2008
4:19 PM PT

[...] Vía Giga OM Si te gustó este artículo, suscribete a nuestro RSS Feed Prohibida su copia total [...]

February 19th, 2008
4:51 PM PT

[...] Scribd also launched an API for iPaper, using these tools publishers can earn money by displaying adsense ads in their documents. The ad revenue is shared between the publisher and Scribd. Scribd QuickSwitch mode provides a code to paste in your sites, and all the documents you uploaded earlier will be converted to iPaper format. Source: GigaOm [...]

February 19th, 2008
5:12 PM PT

[...] rolled out a new version of their document sharing application with an improved Flash-based interface and the ability to [...]

February 19th, 2008
7:25 PM PT

[...] to be the worst code ever written taking over a minute to load a ton of crap - which I never use.  So my heart jumped when I heard about Scribd.   Goodbye [...]

February 19th, 2008
9:26 PM PT

[...] Gigaom has a perspective on some of the iPaper “advantages.” [...]

February 19th, 2008
11:06 PM PT
February 20th, 2008
6:05 AM PT

[...] Mit Ipaper hat die Dokumentenaustausch-Plattform Scribd einen flashbasierten Online-Viewer verffentlicht, der Office- und PDF-Dateien direkt im Browser anzeigen kann. Das Ipaper-System erkennt neben PDF-, Postscript-, Word-, Excel-, Powerpoint-Dateien auch RTF-, Open-Office- und ODF-Dokumente. Mit Ipaper will Scribd laut CEO Trip Adler mit Adobe Reader konkurrieren. [...]

February 20th, 2008
6:35 AM PT

[...] That aspect alone separates iPaper from document-sharing services like DocStoc and Issuu, though I think the latter offers a much slicker viewer. What’s your take? [via GigaOm] [...]

February 20th, 2008
8:02 AM PT
February 20th, 2008
3:26 PM PT

[...] Scribd’s iPaper Plan - GigaOM i thought FlashPaper was a very cool idea, so this is interesting. I do worry however that building an ad model on top of “user generated content” is likely to make youtube copyright infringement look like an easily managed cakewalk (tags: Flash scribd) [...]

February 22nd, 2008
4:00 PM PT

[...] Earlier this week, the small startup Sribd launched its new iPaper viewer, which Om Malik did a review of with screenshots. Om sees iPaper as doing “pretty much everything you expect from Adobe Acrobat Reader, despite [...]

March 3rd, 2008
9:23 AM PT

[...] GigaOm, I am more in favor of ease in sharing documents online and review quickly. If your interest is in [...]

March 27th, 2008
5:32 AM PT

[...] other software programs, especially given the potential for competition from companies such as iScribd. When Adobe launched its hybrid rich Internet application development platform AIR, CTO Kevin Lynch [...]

April 2nd, 2008
3:00 PM PT

[...] Scribd, the startup that lets you share documents in a very spiffy online viewer (here’s the review at our parent site GigaOm). Now there’s a new way to get documents into their system, getting the benefits of unlimited [...]

April 7th, 2008
1:34 PM PT

[...] brainstorm some new Web 2.0 approaches for Scribd, a client that has some momentum coming off a big news announcement of iPaper last [...]

April 14th, 2008
10:25 PM PT

[...] manner, including Wikipedia references, YouTube videos and photos from Flickr, or even PDF files (using Scribd’s iPaper technology.) You can manually add links from your own archives. (See [...]

April 28th, 2008
9:00 PM PT

[...] competitor, Scribd, which has reportedly raised $3.5 million from Redpoint Ventures, and recently announced iPaper. In comparison with Scribd, DocStoc is focusing on sharing of “business and legal [...]

25 comments so far

February 19th, 2008
6:54 AM PT
Bruno said:

You can view an interview of Scribd CEO here:

(link)

February 19th, 2008
7:11 AM PT
Ron West said:

I believe that Adobe did attempt to do this. They call it Flash Paper. It was no where near as successful as they had hoped. I am not sure that they ever got to the “streaming” part but I believe flash itself has streaming content capabilities when combined with the Flash Media Server.

February 19th, 2008
7:13 AM PT
Neel Ketkar said:

Gave it a shot based on the recommendation, but looks like it isn’t up and running yet - error message said the embed code they gave me was the “old” version.

Looks promising though!

February 19th, 2008
7:19 AM PT
Dwight Kelly said:

[I wonder why Adobe didn’t develop an iPaper viewer of its own. I guess they didn’t learn the lessons of online video.]

Check out Adobe Share. It’s a web-based application written in AIR that has similar functionality.

February 19th, 2008
7:39 AM PT
Om Malik said:

@Dwight,

You have a link for that? THanks

February 19th, 2008
7:43 AM PT
Baylor said:

Adobe Share is clunky and you have to install all the AIR crap before you use it.

February 19th, 2008
8:17 AM PT
Chris Gilmer said:

You need an Adobe ID to get started.

(link)

and

(link)

February 19th, 2008
8:19 AM PT

Neel: the embed codes have been fixed and now display the iPaper code

February 19th, 2008
8:26 AM PT
Chris Gilmer said:

PS. you do not need AIR to use this, and its a simple online tool to share and store different types of media including:

Microsoft Office 2003 and 2007 formats, Rich Text Format (RTF), Open Office formats, text, and PDF.
• HTML
• Adobe supported image formats: GIF, JPEG, BMP, PNG
• Creative Suite file formats
• SWF and Captivate formats
• ZIP

February 19th, 2008
9:56 AM PT
rohit said:

“There is no way for Google to advertise against non-HTML documents such as PDF format files.”

Them’s fighting words Om.

February 19th, 2008
10:04 AM PT
Scionguy said:

“If the tiny startup can replicate the popularity of YouTube…”

Somehow I don’t see people getting quite as excited about online documents as they would online videos. Kinda like saying a library should be just as popular as a movie theater on Friday night. I can see great advantages in a business environment, but not much for the general consumer market.

February 19th, 2008
10:19 AM PT

Just a purely mechanical observation:

I just went and looked at Scribd and found a document of interest. When I went to blog it there was no simple way to copy the paragraph that demonstrated its importance so I could paste it into my blog.

You CAN embed the entire document and you CAN download the document for further use, and those are valuable features, but without the ability to copy/paste right off the display this will be a richly frustrating experience for bloggers, who will find a trove to explore and a multi-step not quite thought through process they must traverse every time they share.

just my 2Cents… very close guys. Very close.

February 19th, 2008
11:53 AM PT

Adobe currently partners with Yahoo! to deliver advertising-supported PDFs.

(link)

FlashPaper is a desktop application/convertor, and developers were always curious if Scribd received server-side licensing for the commercial convertor or simply applied a hack. The launch of iPaper solves the licensing issue for Scribd and may have been a required step for the company.

February 19th, 2008
12:55 PM PT
Dave McClure said:

looks great, altho i’m not clear on what’s all that different about iPaper from the original Macromedia Flashpaper i first took a look at about 4 years ago (which i thought was awesome way back then). why Adobe couldn’t be doing this too, except for perhaps Acrobt / PDF corporate fiefdoms at risk? can someone elucidate further?

anyway, it’s an interesting product regardless… and Scribd looks like a winner.

along with Scribd, i’m very impressed with SlideShare.net. they’re doing something similar, altho a bit more on the professional side for presentations & powerepoints. if Scribd is YouTube, then maybe SlideShare is Flickr. actually i might say Scribd’s audience is Facebook; SlideShare’s audience is LinkedIn.

(full disclosure: recently became an investor/advisor in SlideShare, however i’ve been using it fanatically for over a year…)

February 19th, 2008
1:08 PM PT
Om Malik said:

@rohit,

what’s a little needling between friends. Anyway it is time Google did something new with AdSense. ;-)

February 19th, 2008
1:09 PM PT
Om Malik said:

@ Dave

Dude i think the search, flipping through pages, different views and smaller foot print are some of the key differences. I think Adobe should have done this a long time ago, but they didn’t and that is precisely the problem most incumbents have - fiefdoms as you said yourself.

February 19th, 2008
1:15 PM PT
Dave McClure said:

actually now that i think about it i think it’s EXACTLY the Acrobat fiefdoms at risk.

Consider:
* Macromedia comes out with FlashPaper, great Acrobat competitor that doesn’t require huge-ass download every time (Flash is on 98% of browsers)
* Adobe buys Macromedia, realizes it doesn’t need 2 technologies, quietly asphyxiates FlashPaper before people realize how much better it is
* Scribd takes a look, realizes it can rebuild FlashPaper as iPaper and kick Adobe’s Acrobat ass with Macromedia’s old product
* Scribd adds some monetization features for $$$ & differentiation

fucking brilliant. why didn’t i think of that?

damn.

February 19th, 2008
1:30 PM PT

Kevin Kelly’s True Films eBook includes Adobe/Yahoo contextual ads: (link) (December 29, 2007)

February 19th, 2008
1:56 PM PT
Zoltan Soos said:

Adobe’s PDF is capable of streaming since probably version 4.0. However, applications that create PDFs (including Acrobat) will not always enable the “Fast Web View” or the user neglects to “optimize” the file.

In addition, the web application serving the PDF file to the browser must also be “streaming” enabled — which is fortunately the case with almost all of the modern web platforms.

It is nice to see a tightly coupled (server + client) application where streaming is natural and not a user option.

February 19th, 2008
11:58 PM PT
Guest said:

That service looks naive, have a look at (link) much more professional and eye appealing too! & it’s for free

February 20th, 2008
4:09 AM PT
analogstuff said:

I have uploaded a sample pdf file to scribd and when i embed that file in my blog it says file is of older version. Any fix for it.

February 20th, 2008
4:57 AM PT

to get youtube-class buzz virality would would almost certainly involve massive copyright infringement across a far wider range of publishers, with a clear financial model (ads) for them to attack. awesome.

February 20th, 2008
2:13 PM PT
Camilla said:

Scribd needs to get their copyright and licensing straight before they are going to go anywhere. (Flickr is a great model.) Everything on Scribd is licensed using a CC-BY-NC license, even though at no point does the user agree to this license. Scribd seems to be willfully ignorant in regard to copyright and licensing. Their video promoting ipaper uses several documents (supposedly licensed under the CC-BY-NC license) without attribution and for the commercial purpose of promoting their service.

Legally, if the license doesn’t hold up, then no one can reuse, redistribute, or even embed documents on Scribd. This seems to be quite a problem for their advertising model.

March 3rd, 2008
11:35 PM PT
Adam said:

What is the connection, if any, between Scribd’s iPaper and the Danmark-based firm called iPaper? (link) Aren’t the guys at Scribd a copycat?

April 13th, 2008
8:22 AM PT
bb said:

You Cant save it……….

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