Scribd

Scribd is an online digital library with social networking, document sharing, and premium e-book retail and subscription services through its website and mobile apps. Its content ranges from academic papers and self-published materials uploaded by users to novels and nonfiction books published in digital formats by mainstream trade presses such as HarperCollins and Simon & Schuster. As the largest digital library of its kind in the world, it enjoys both the opportunities and risks afforded by scale. Its transition from the “YouTube for documents” to the “Netflix for books” reflects broader trends away from participatory and toward more traditionally consumerist digital media. Scribd has been accused of hosting pirated content and, as a business, it faces significant competition from a range of other digital text ...