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PE Profile: Document Sharing Site Docin.com
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 Beijing-based Docin.com is a document sharing site; the idea is similar to that of US-based Scribd.com, which has raised $3.7 million from Redpoint Ventures and has been dubbed "the Youtube for documents". Docin users can upload documents to the site, which are converted into Flash and can be viewed on the Docin site, embedded into other sites or downloaded. Docin has developed an API (at www.vonibo.com) that lets other sites use Docin's technology to support document uploading, displaying and sharing on their own sites. Unlike Scribd, Docin is working on its own document sharing community site (Docin Campus) for university students. Most downloads on Docin now are free, but Docin plans to allow users to charge for downloads while taking a cut of the transaction. They will also do online advertising; the site is currently running Google AdSense.
Docin CEO Jonathan Lin recently gave us an introduction to Docin. The site was launched in November 2007. The company was founded by Lin and Mark Mai. Mai founded the Chinese online dating company eFriendsNet, which he sold to Meetic.com for $25 million in January 2006. Docin has raised a seed round and says it is currently finalizing a Series A round. The company currently has 16 employees.
Lin believes that Docin has the chance to be big in China because reading online in China is already very popular. He notes that there are online novel sites in the top 1,000 sites in the world. He says Docin can compete with these sites because it offers a superior reading experience.
Docin is working on making deals with publishers to publish content on the site. Lin says that while Scribd's model is strictly advertising, Docin wants to be a sales channel for publishers. The site has already signed deals for some online novels.
Lin on Docin Campus, the company's own university-focused document sharing site: With Docin Campus, college students can shares class notes, homework, ideas from lectures, etc. Our belief is that when you get into a very specific vertical like that, documents can be monetized. Mainstream content can't be monetized because it is too easy to find substitutes. There are maybe only 30 other people in the world that care about this content. So it is the only place you are going to find it and there is an extremely high willingness to pay. If you have a class of 30 people and five people are sharing documents, then those five have an advantage. We launched the site in March and it has been growing pretty quickly. We will keep it free for six months or so, at which point we may have a subscription model. We can let students pay RMB 2 per month, or upload five documents a month and you can use it for free.
We cater very specifically to needs of students. They can add the classes they are taking, and all their classes are listed on their homepage. A campus BBS is probably not as targeted and the user experience is not as good. We have catalogued and organized everything.
Lin on Docin's international expansion: We launched in Japan and Korean in January 2008. Scribd and Docstoc.com have launched in the States, are they are both doing quite well. I think they have pretty successfully proven this model in North America and they have also done well in Europe and South America. There is no competition currently in Japan and Korea. We want to become a dominant player in Asia first, and then we will probably expand back into the US and start competing with companies like Scribd.
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