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Scribd has now branded itself as the online eBook and audiobook destination of the web. The Scribd platform has gone through numerous changes over the years. For example, in the past, Scribd allowed users to create groups and simply upload, read and share files. Today, Scribd is beyond that. Now the central focus of Scribd is a marketplace for authors and publishers, and a place for users to purchase audio and digital books for a low monthly price to read them on their preferred device. However, the average user is still able to upload and share a wide range of file types through Scribd's flexible html reader for free or offer them for sale.

The uploaded documents can be easily embedded into webpages and blogs using the generated html embed code. The domain that Scribd is diving head-first into, electronic and audio books, places it in the narrow path of competitors such as Amazon Kindle and Audible, also an Amazon-owned audiobook publisher and marketplace. With Scribd's cash chest, over $25 million since their launch in 2007, they have narrowed their focus and are now focused on wooing big time publishers such as Simon and Schuster to utilize the Scribd platform for their distribution.

Pros

Eye Candy

The document reader is beautiful. Scribd's reader allows you to focus on the content being presented.

Multi-Platform

Scribd is available across the most popular operating systems such as desktop browser applications, Android, IOS and Kindle Reader. Scribd wants to be where the readers are.

Wide Selection

There are a wide section of eBooks and audiobooks to choose from. Also, there are books available from well-known publishers such as Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Distribute Documents

Scribed makes it very easy to distribute your documents. This puts it in direct competition with distributors such as Amazon Kindle, Amazon's Audible, Oysterbooks, your local public library and many more.

Keep Track of Reads

Users are able to keep track of the books that they read through the creation of collections. Also, they can choose to make their reads public or private.

Recognizable Publishers

Scribd is now attracting more reputable publishers to their book distribution platform such as Simon and Schuster, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and many more.

Cons

Price

Scribd is charging the same price as a service that has a wider selection of eBooks, like Oyster and audiobooks in the form of Kindle and many other distributors.

Hard to Discover Free Content

Free is not the central theme of the current iteration of Scribd. Therefore, it is hard to find content that you can read for free. You have to search for the title that you are looking for, and after you have searched you can then sort for free content.
From the Publisher: Scribd:

The world's favorite open publishing platform

In addition to making the best subscription book service around, we've also built the world's most popular open platform for publishing and sharing documents of all kinds. To date, people all over the world have shared more than 60 million documents via Scribd, from landmark court filings to business presentations to academic papers from scholars around the world.

Overall

Scribd is a great platform to upload your documents to for distribution. After you have uploaded your documents, you can choose your privacy settings for that document and control how it is utilized. This makes Scribd a great platform for students to showcase their writings to the entire world and receive constructive feedback. Teachers can also use Scribd to make content available for students to refer to at their convenience, or use it for collaboration with their peers. Scribd has really narrowed its focus since its inception, however, focusing on digital book distributions appears to be helping morale in the office according to an anonymous employee. On Glassdoor, the unnamed employee said that Scribd's ride has been the equivalent to a roller-coaster up until our book subscription service. However this new vision has given life to Scribd and its employees.

Personally, I think that Scribd's business model faces a lot of threats, because there is just too much competition in the eBook distribution space. It will not be easy competing against Amazon (Kindle, Audible, GoodReads), Oysterbooks and your trusted public library. However, it is a great platform for writers who are looking for a way to put their writings out there to a large audience.

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