What we do
Scribd brings together the best of the written word to help readers become their best selves.
Our mission
To change the way the world reads.
Our core values
We are characters with character.
People: We value people above everything else. We invest in our employees and believe that diverse stories, ideas, and talents are what make us great.
We embrace plot twists.
Taking action and learning: We are problem-solvers that act with urgency. We use both data and intuition to tackle tough challenges and balance priorities, we grow through our mistakes, and often learn by doing.
We are writing our story together.
Ownership and accountability: We are all owners. We hold ourselves and each other accountable, engage in open dialogue, and we push one another to do our best work every day.
We are crafting a timeless tale.
Sustainability: We are dedicated to our mission. We are strategic and take deliberate steps to build a sustainable business that will stand the test of time.
We are dedicated to helping readers flourish.
Community: We care deeply about our customers. Our community is the soul of the product and we work hard to understand and meet their needs.
We are inspired by reading.
Love of reading: We believe in the importance of reading and use our product to make it a meaningful part of our lives.
From our founder
Trip Adler, Founder & CEO
We launched as a simple way to publish any kind of written content on the web. Now, Scribd is keeping reading alive in the 21st century.
A brief history of Scribd
March 2007
Scribd launches the world’s first open publishing platform, allowing anyone to quickly and easily share ideas with the world.
Oct 2013
Scribd introduces the first reading subscription service, providing readers with monthly access to books — all for one flat fee.
Nov 2014
Scribd incorporates audiobooks into its reading subscription service and becomes the most robust and valuable subscription service for readers.
Dec 2015
Sheet music becomes a part of Scribd’s subscription, giving users unprecedented digital access to compositions from the world’s top composers.
Nov 2016
Scribd adds magazines from leading publishers to its subscription.
May 2017
Scribd brings articles from trusted sources like The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Financial Times, and more to its subscription.
Jan 2019
Scribd surpasses the 1,000,000 subscriber milestone.
April 2019
Scribd launches Scribd Originals, an original content publishing house that brings exclusive content to our subscribers.
A few of our publishing partners
Other fun facts
Transcript of From Our Founder
Trip (Co-Founder and CEO): Scribd’s vision is to change that the way the world reads. We launched Scribd as a simple way to publish any kind of written content on the web. The initial idea was inspired by my dad having a medical paper. He’s a doctor and he had a medical paper he wanted to publish, so we decided to build Scribd to help him publish his paper mor easily; because it used to take eighteen months to publish a medical paper. We started with user-contributed content and then we partnered with all the big publishers to add e-Books, and then we added audiobooks, and then we added magazines, newspapers. We even have sheet music in service. One thing I’m proud of is we’re really providing a great, new business model and distribution model for publishers and authors. Reading has been one of the most important forms of communication for thousands of years, really. It’s a really important way that people communicate deep, important thoughts and the way people learn and use their minds. In this current social media era, everyone is looking at really short-form content, and video and snaps and all that, and I think it’s more important than ever that reading stays alive. Hopefully, Scribd is keeping reading alive in the twenty-first century.
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