Ten years after its launch, social storytelling app Wattpad is offering a premium subscription service to users in the U.S. and Canada. Wattpad Premium, available for $5.99 a month or $59.99 a year (essentially getting two free months annually), gives users a fresh, new theme and an ad-free experience on mobile and the web, with new features to be added in the coming months. The free version of the app will still be available to users as Wattpad moves to a freemium model.

‘The Wattpad community is the most important thing to us, and we want them to have the best possible experience across all our platforms,’ said Allen Lau, Wattpad CEO and co-founder, in a blog post. ‘An ad-free option has been one of the most requested features from our users. Wattpad Premium gives people more control over their Wattpad experience, and allows us to continue to offer Wattpad as a free platform that anyone can enjoy.’

Since the early days of only 1,000 or so users, Wattpad, who describes itself as a global multiplatform entertainment company, has grown exponentially. The company boasts these statistics:

• More than 60 million monthly users
• 15 billion minutes per month are spent in the app
• More than 400 million stories have been uploaded
• 90 percent of all activity is on mobile devices.
• More than 50 languages are supported.

Along with Wattpad, the Toronto-based company is part of a variety of related ventures, including:

• Tap by Wattpad, short, chat-based stories in more than a dozen languages
• Wattpad Labs, a three-month residency program at Wattpad HQ to develop innovative ideas
• Wattpad Studios to co-produce film, television, digital and print stories
• Wattpad Brand Stories, a full suite of advertising products to help companies build brands to engage with millennials and Gen Z readers

According to Crunchbase, Wattpad was founded in December 2006 by Allen Lau and Ivan Yuen. To date, they’ve raised close to $107 million in funding, including a $50 million investment by Tencent Holdings, a Chinese internet service portal. Other investors include Khosla Ventures, AME Cloud Ventures, Version One Ventures, August Capital, Raine and Northleaf Capital Partners.

Insider Take:

We are new to Wattpad, but we like what we are seeing. Since its launch, the company has amassed a huge fan base. The company has also steadily added new product lines and developed partnerships that expand their offerings while also diversifying their revenue streams. While other age groups may use Wattpad, the company is catering to millennials and Gen Z, and they seem to have really narrowed their focus to better serve those groups. We are excited to see what’s next for Wattpad and to learn how they’ll spend their latest infusion of capital.