Wattpad, a platform used to host both fan fiction and original fiction, has announced a new partnership with ViacomCBS. Viacom will adapt stories from Wattpad as well as the webcomic platform WEBTOON into series to stream on Paramount+. Wattpad was purchased this year by Naver, the parent company of WEBTOON, for $600 million dollars.
This isn’t Wattpad’s first venture into streaming adaptations: The Kissing Booth and After on Netflix both began as Wattpad stories. (After was a One Direction fan fiction.) Wattpad states that its stories come with “built-in Gen Z and millennial global fandoms” and that they hold a lot of data about the browsing habits of users, making it easier to spot stories that would perform will in an adaptation.
The statement does not contain any details about how the authors of both original fiction and fan fiction will be compensated for their work if it is chosen to be adapted, especially considering the tricky IP issues of monetizing a work of fan fiction.
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