Industry Benchmarking: Valuations, Revenue & Trends
The interactive storytelling industry has seen significant growth over the past few years, with platforms like Wattpad, Episode, Chapters, and MeChat leading the market.
Understanding the competitive landscape is crucial for staying ahead, but obtaining up-to-date financial data on private companies in this space can be challenging.
The figures presented here are based on the most recent publicly available information, industry estimates, and past revenue trends from the last 1-4 years. While some data points may be slightly outdated, they still provide valuable insights into how these platforms have performed and scaled.
Wattpad
Valuation: Wattpad was acquired by Naver (Korea) in May 2021 in a cash-and-stock deal valued at around $600 million: company.wattpad.com.
Revenue: Wattpad’s revenue has grown significantly over the years:
2022: Around $50 million annual revenue (estimated).
: RocketReach data pegged Wattpad’s yearly revenue at $50.3 million as of the early 2020sfanficable.com. (Wattpad has not publicly disclosed recent revenue, but this estimate suggests strong growth from the late 2010s.)
Chapters: Interactive Stories
Valuation: Chapters is a product of Crazy Maple Studio - a private company (Crazy Maple Studio has not announced major funding rounds to reveal a valuation)
Revenue:
2020: Roughly $9 million per month in gross revenue during its peak months, implying an annual run-rate over $100 million.
Episode (Episode – Choose Your Story)
Valuation: Episode is developed by Pocket Gems. In 2017 Tencent invested $90 million in Pocket Gems at about a $500 million valuation globalventuring.com. This reflected the value of Pocket Gems’ portfolio, with Episode being a flagship product
Revenue:
Monthly revenue ranged roughly $4–7 million. For example, in early 2020 Episode grossed about $7 million in one month, then around $5–6 million in subsequent months, dipping to ~$3.6 million at one point and later stabilizing around $4.7 million per month. This puts annual 2020 revenue in the ballpark of $50–$70 million.
MeChat – Interactive Stories
Valuation: PlayMe Studio (developer of MeChat) is a private company with no disclosed funding
MeChat has over 10 million installs on Android alone as of 2023
appbrain.com(and also ranks highly in several countries’ app charts).
Revenue:
Mid-2024: MeChat’s revenue is about $600,000 per month (estimate)paywallscreens.comfrom in-app purchases (such as premium choices or virtual currency for story interactions). This monthly run-rate (~$0.6M) equates to roughly $7 million per year. For example, one report in mid-2024 shows MeChat grossing ~$600K in a month with ~200K new downloads in that monthpaywallscreens.compaywallscreens.com.
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