The Covid-19 Pandemic outbreak did not always have a bad effect. Conversely, not a few who actually gain profits, one of which is the Storial. This is a digital platform for writers and readers from Indonesia with a concept similar to Wattpad.
Storial reported experiencing triple user growth during the first quarter of this year. Although they do not reveal in detail the number of users. But from the downloads recorded in the Play Store, at least we can find out the range of the number of Storial users who reach more than 100 thousand downloads. While the number of authors themselves has reached 16,000.
Steve Wirawan, CEO of the Storial, does not deny that the quarantine period is difficult, especially facing the challenges of limited self-actualization social distancing. However, at the same time, we also have more time to explore and adopt the technology.
“Our platform that offers direct interaction turns out to be the choice of writers and readers to stay connected. Each user on the Storial can upload their story for everyone to enjoy. This situation causes many people to use the Storial more than just a platform to read stories,” Steve Wirawan, CEO of the Storial, said in an official statement received Gizmologi.
Storial, Platform for Writers and Readers
Storial.co is social storytelling platform to write and read digitally, which has been founded since 2016. This platform accepts a variety of writings such as novels, short stories, humor, articles and poetry. By offering available features, Storial makes it easy for writers and readers to interact with one another.
Until now the Storial has succeeded in collecting 50,000 titles written by various groups from all over Indonesia. The Storial feature allows writers to write themselves and collaboratively and get the story chapter by chapter.
There are also features that connect writers with other writers and readers. Through this application, the author can upload his work anywhere and anytime, as well as readers who can read readings at any time from their smartphone. The application is now also equipped with AudioStory features. So, users can hear stories through the audio version.
Storial applies the freemium concept in which most of the content is free. As for premium content, users can read it by exchanging coins. Users can buy from 100 coins worth Rp20 thousand to 900 coins worth Rp150,000.
Storial Growth
Storial recorded the highest data summarized during the quarantine period in March-May from various regions throughout Indonesia. This increase in traffic occurred by 350% compared to before quarantine which requires the community to stay at home.
This startup also reports a longer reader duration in accessing the story. This data increases three times more, with an average of 60 chapters being read per week. During this quarantine, the acceleration of adoption in online reading was no longer as before.
According to Steve, as a social creature, everyone wants to always be connected to one another, including through online reading activities that are becoming a new habit in this country. Due to increased online reading habits, he also noted the purchase of more Storial coins to access premium chapters.
“This is the story of a writer who is a premium writer, a writer who has been well-curated by our editorial team and has written at least 10 chapters with at least 2,000 views. The premium writer has the potential to get royalties from his work after his writing was reviewed by the Storial editorial team. From writing stories at the Storial, some of our writers get royalties up to five times that of the regional minimum wage in their city per month, “said Steve.
The author can monetize per chapter of his writing with a transparent calculation of royalties. This is what also gives hope to the writer to be valued financially. In addition, many of the great writers and influencers joined the Storial to diversify their sources of income, especially during this time of uncertainty.
“By sharing stories at the Storial, we facilitate writers to be able to offer their work to readers. We also observe the high potential of local writers in various cities who have succeeded in writing their best stories so that they can be accessed by thousands of readers at the Storial, “concluded Steve.
The Indonesian version of this article can be read in Gizmologi.ID
