If you build it, they will come – more than half a million people to be precise.
Initially released in 2010 specifically for the iPad, Flipboard is an innovative new program that allows its users to create their very own magazines. And to say that this app has become popular since its version 2.0 release in March is an understatement. Since the update, Flipboard has added 6 million new members, 500,000 new magazines, and boasts 56 million total users.
Through the Flipboard app, both publishers and readers alike may create their own virtual magazine. Esquire has landed itself as the most popular magazine by a publisher with its release of The Esquire Interviews while reader Ken Kercado, Jr. has the most popular reader magazine with The Interesting Things. (There’s even a magazine dedicated to grilled cheese.) More than 50% of version 2.0 users are reading magazines daily with the option to “flip” through articles, audio files, and video.
Forrester recently completed a study delving into the mobile mind shift which can be defined as “the expectation that any desired information or service is available, on any appropriate device, in context, at a person’s moment of need.” Amidst this shift, Flipboard has asserted itself as a leader. It has solved “the problem of attention allocation through information ‘filters’,” as explained by Forbes magazine. In other words, through its user-friendly platform, visual appeal, and personalized filters, Flipboard has cut through the clutter to grab readers’ fractured attention – no small feat.
Described as a “virtual playground for content discovery, curation, and sharing,” Flipboard is one to watch…and spend some time with.