English 英 : Deirdre Kelly | Chinese 中 : Maggie Ho

VENUE: Wattpad HQ (Toronto) · ART DIRECTION: Deborah Lau-Yu Coordination: Rhonda Lam · PHOTOGRAPHER: Jackson Huang, Ikonica PHOTOGRAPHY ASSISTANT: Jonah Wiley, Ikonica · FASHION DIRECTION + STYLING: Ashley Galang · MAKEUP & HAIR DESIGN: Maggie Ng, Pro Beauty Artists · ATTIRE: JAFINE, RVNG, Harry Rosen

Allen Eva Lau Wattpad two small fish digital company online platform reading stories story tech SERIAL ENTREPRENEUR canada canadian business — On Allen: BOSS at Harry Rosen 3-Piece Slim-Fit Virgin Wool Check, Suit in Dark Blue, | Slim Fit Dress Shirt in Light Blue, Tie.
On Eva: JAFINE Hand-Beaded Sparkle, Velvet Suit Jimmy Choo Shoes , Chanel Necklace

A llen and Eva Lau are both a professional and a married couple who share many things in common, including their Two Small Fish Ventures start up investment company and Wattpad, a multi-billion dollar reading and writing platform which they founded with nothing more than a fresh idea during the early days of mobile phones. There’s more. Both were born in Hong Kong and both — unbeknownst to each other at the time — immigrated to Canada at the same time (the very same week in fact) as teens in the 1980s. Both went on to study engineering at the University of Toronto, which is where they first met, through mutual friends. They then worked together at Delrina, one of Toronto’s first successful start-ups in the early 1990s, at one time or other serving as each other’s boss. Married since 1997, they share two daughters and a central Toronto home in addition to a growing international reputation as tech disruptors and entrepreneurs.

「Where Stories Live」是Wattpad的標語 —— 這2006年創立的文化交流平台，大概改寫了無數作家的人生故事、顛覆了傳統的文學現象。至今擁有近億用戶和六億多篇原創故事， Wattpad提供了作者和讀者一個直接交流、分享想法的網上空間，2021年更被韓國媒體巨頭Naver以六億美元全資收購。Wattpad聯合創辦人劉雅倫(Allen)及太太曾依華(Eva)分享他們一路以來的創業及奮鬥的故事；劉氏夫婦小心籌劃，大膽嘗試，盡見創科企業家不斷突破的冒險精神。

十五年前，就在iPhone、Android等還未面世以前，Allen與拍檔Ivan Yuen瞄準互聯網與手機急速發展，將會大大改變人類閱讀與寫作的習慣；喜愛閱讀且醉心電子科技的Allen，有了初步的構想：建立一個類近YouTube的免費文學網上互動平台，讓用家可以隨意上載創作，同時可於手機上閱讀發表的作品。Allen說：「任何一間初創公司，在開始時也不會有長遠仔細的發展計劃。最初的任何計劃，十年後也不再管用，你只能看準時機，一邊發展，一邊作出調整。」在發展之初，Allen不但從用家角度仔細考量，更早將目標放眼於長遠國際發展。

In conversation, Eva is outgoing and Allen is matter-of-fact — the one more prone to speaking in statistics when detailing their business journey. Eva teasingly calls him a nerd. “Our personalities couldn’t be more different,” she says. Allen wears glasses and a button-down shirt while Eva, a former ballerina, exudes glamour and elegance with her bobbed hair style, faultless makeup and silky clothes. But they are more alike than even she lets on. What binds them is a shared willingness to plunge into the unknown. Everything about them — from moving to a new country and adopting a new culture to creating a radically new business model entirely from scratch and without a precedent to guide them — is predicated on being willing to go where no one has gone before. Being fearless. “Going into the unknown is quite fulfilling,” says Eva, explaining what drives them in life and business. “You are pushing into a new frontier, with the potential to improve how people operate, as well as how the economy and the world works. You are helping to move things forward and that’s a thrilling prospect.” The alternative, adds Allen, completing the thought, “would be to do nothing and nothing is just not an option.” At least not for this dynamic duo.

They share a passion for projects that combine technological innovation and social problem solving in business ventures based on calculated risk generated by high volumes of data. This is reflected in their Wattpad enterprise where machine-generated facts and figures turned what began as a risky venture — a mobile storytelling platform for the masses — into one of the world’s leading entertainment companies. Wattpad’s team of engineers mines data to determine global trends in writing and reading fiction, including subject matter, character development and specific genres, as dictated by user activity and comments. Information is used to guide plot development and create reader engagement. There’s no guessing as to what story might end up being a hit, which has long been the old model of publishing narrative literature. The data incontrovertibly establishes what it is the people want and will read. It generates fandom, the driving force behind the company’s success. The proof, again, is in the numbers: more than a hundred million users who post a million new chapters of original content daily on top of hundreds of millions of comments. To quote Allen, that’s freakin’ huge. “No one thought it was possible,” he says, “but of course we proved them wrong. We used technology disruption to create a new paradigm; we leveled the field.”

數據及科技改變市場生態

傳統書寫創作所面對的困難之一，是難以預計觀眾反應。Wattpad利用互聯網的優勢，讓作者得以聯繫大量的潛在讀者，在短時間或即時獲得回饋意見。「十億製作預算的電影，竟是由會議室內五個人去決定。為甚麼我們經常抱怨改編成電影後反而不及原著小說吸引？那是因為400頁紙的小說刪減至80頁的劇本之前；往往缺乏讀者數據支援，而刪減了最受讀者歡迎的部分。」

Eva分析，開放的互動平台激發了創作者與讀者的交流：「傳統的創作過程中，作者只能從編輯或出版社聽取意見；Wattpad上大量而開放的交流，本身就是藝術創作的過程。」Allen補充說：「作者們或會好奇讀者的反應與感想，但他們都討厭有人告訴他們應該怎樣寫，因此我們在一開始經已非常強調平台上只會有留言，而不會有評論。」

Along the way, Wattpad sparked what Canadian literary lion Margaret Atwood has called a literary revolution. What used to be something of a rarified practice, taken up by creative geniuses and supported by publishing houses armed with exclusive contracts and lucrative advances, has, through Wattpad, become democratized and easily accessible to anyone with a cellphone. Everything on the site is free and participation is as interactive as a video game. In an era when young people are said to be not reading anymore, Wattpad is bringing them back to the written word in droves. It’s also attracting interest from places where literary production has been scant, due to economic and social restrictions. Wattpad’s largest markets are found in developing nations like Brazil, Vietnam and the Philippines. “Wattpad opens the doors and enlarges the view in places where the doors are closed and the view is restricted,” said Atwood in an op-ed piece she wrote for the Guardian newspaper. It’s allowing, she added, a new generation of creatives to “test its wings.”

要顛覆傳統先了解傳統

工程師出身的Allen、Ivan及Eva精於解決問題，一方面想到以科技數據分析內容以改善產品的質量，另一方面亦要確保產量豐足：如何吸引創作者上載作品？創作者為何而寫？什麼原因

Kiton at Harry Rosen Knit Cotton Polo in Red | TOM FORD at Harry Rosen Slim Fit Wool Dress Pants

會令他們堅持或放棄寫作？這些問題，對於從來沒有寫作經驗的他們來說十分陌生，為此Eva與Ivan在創業的早期下了一番苦工，各人親自嘗試在Wattpad上寫作。

「創科公司作為『顛覆者』的角色，就是要改變行內既定生態。但在提出改變之前，更應了解業內行情，否則便是太自大了。」Allen強調不斷學習的重要。「現在我大可以跟你侃侃而談甚麼是內容建設、創作出版等等，但這些知識和經驗都是我們經過十多年不斷努力、論證、學習、了解。每當踫上不熟悉的範疇，我們總是四處詢問，甚至聘請專業人士去幫助我們明白各種知識。」

The flight path has led Allen and Eva into unknown territory for them, expanding Wattpad’s content catalogue into a multimedia empire inclusive of books, television, digital projects and films. Neither had professional experience in publishing nor producing films. And neither had ever before written fiction of any kind prior to Wattpad, but suddenly here they were, making their mark in this burgeoning online cultural industry. Besides a data-backed book publishing division, they also launched a film and television production studio where some Wattpad success stories — all by previously unknown authors — have been optioned for movie development. A couple of recent examples: A traves de mi ventana, a popular Wattpad story with more than 300-million reads (which became a Netflix hit in 22 regions) and Float, another upcoming production based on Wattpad writer Kate Marchant’s story of the same name and co-starring Andrea Bang of Kim’s Convenience fame.

追求不一樣的自己

經過多年的努力，Wattpad的發展早已超越一個文學發表平台，業務更擴展到出版、電視、電影等娛樂領域。九千四百多萬用戶當中包括五百萬個作者，經其一手發掘的原創小說《之後》(After)、《The Kissing Booth》更被改編成電影。Wattpad平台上，最成功作品《之後》更成為一種反傳統的文學現象：作家Anna Todd用手機寫作，並逐章發表，該作品已被Wattpad用戶閲讀20億次。Wattpad曾被媒體喻為「利用人工智能打造的下一個迪士尼」，大概因為它替作家締造了夢想成真的機會！成績驚人，但Allen表示：「無論是公司抑或是個人，都須要定期作出變更。小至開會的模式，大至公司架構、內部溝通、管理方針等，昨日可行的模式，到了明日就可能不再適用。我時常警惕自己：每隔一段時間便要變得不一樣。」這亦解釋了Allen在2022年5月從Wattpad及WEBTOON行政總裁一職改任公司顧問的決定：「我不是退下來、也不是離場，我只是換了崗位。」

JAFINE Bell Sleeve Shirtdress | JAFINE Swarovski Crystal Beaded Necklace | Zvelle Shoes

Data not only drives the content, but it also mitigates some of the financial risks involved. “You read a lot,” says Allen “about a $100-million movie that only five people in a studio have decided to make and the success rate is abysmal — less than 10 per cent. What we’re saying is that if you want to do well at the box office then let the box office have a say. You should let the numbers speak for themselves.” More projects are in the works since Wattpad’s $600-million sale to a South Korean media conglomerate in 2021. Naver owns WEBTOON, an online platform behind hit web comics like Lore Olympus and is already at work on another 100 new Wattpad projects, including Perfect Addiction, a story with more than 81-million reads, now being adapted into an English-language film by WEBTOON Studios in collaboration with JB Pictures and Constantin Films. Allen will take on an executive advisor role.

Meanwhile Eva, a former Wattpad executive, remains busy at Two Small Fish Ventures where she also uses the big data principle to ferret out start-ups to invest in and support. A prominent angel investor, she is one of the few women in Canada to lead an early-stage investment firm. Since she founded the company in 2014, she has backed dozens of businesses, among them restaurant delivery service Skip the Dishes and Sheertex, the indestructible Canadian sheer panty hose brand which retail giant H&M recently invested in with plans to take it global. Lau got involved in Sheertex shortly after its founding in 2017, using data to support her instinct that this was a company with a reliable future. Worth the risk. “If you start with a company that’s small, you have a chance to grow with it,” she says. “That’s what makes investing in start-ups so exciting: you can learn a ton.”

預測未知放膽嘗試

接下來， Allen會投放時間於Two Small Fish Ventures風險投資企業。公司由他與Eva於2014年共同創立，專為種子階段的科技公司提供資金及創業經費。Eva從投資者角度分析，Two Small Fish不單是為回報，更是一種使命。「投資當然有風險，但投資於創新科技是一種必須。從農業到工業，電腦、流動電子科技、到今日的雲端等各項創新發展，社會經濟及生活等各方面的進步，都是靠創新與冒險而來的。」Allen跟Eva對創科企業的著迷早已有跡可尋。Allen碩士畢業後即加入IBM，剛畢業便投身國際巨企，前途看似光明，但Allen幾乎在入職第一天，便深感不適合，「大公司太有規模，太多程序，彈性太少。在那裏我不可能作出新嘗試。」入職不到一年，Allen便毅然離職，轉投當時只有數年歷史、員工不到100人的初創。與Eva在Brightspark、Symantec等公司工作，第一身經歷過創科公司變革的文化及驚人的發展，啟發了他們創業的念頭。Eva解說：「初創公司總是充滿幹勁，投身其中，你會經常接觸最新的科技，亦會被指派重要的任務，非常有成就感。創科公司內可能只有三數個同事及員工，但你所接觸到的範疇、個人的成長，可能是在一間三萬多人公司內經歷很多年、橫跨幾個部門才能學到。」

Discovery to Eva, as well as Allen, is an elixir. It’s what motivates them and makes them happiest, even when, like many couples, they butt heads. Sometimes their arguments are about work. “We’re both very opinionated,” divulges Eva, “and we both like to get our way.” (Yet another thing they have in common.) But they respect, as well as love, each other and can laugh at each other’s foibles while having each other’s backs. A marriage, much like a business, never has a predictable future. It’s built on trial and error. But the best ones are also built on trust, the belief that everything will work out in the end if driven by good intentions. “It’s about creating a better future,” Eva says. “And understanding how to make it better,” adds Allen, perfectly complimenting her sentence.

On Allen: TOM FORD at Harry Rosen Shelton Velvet Tuxedo Jacket in Red, Slim-Fit Cotton Dress Shirt in White, Spencer Tailored Trouser in Black, Grosgrain Bow Tie Black | On Eva: RVNG The LISSA Pink One Shoulder Dress Jimmy Choo Shoes Van Cleef & Arpels Earring and Necklace

最強後盾最佳導航

根據市場統計，90%初創公司會失敗。所以，二人同時強調風險評估的重要：「不要只看風險的部份，更要預測未知的成果；衡量過兩邊的利害，如果損失是可承擔的，便放膽去做。」Allen笑說：「只有一種情況下是零風險的，就是甚麼也不做！」

「探索『未知』是生活的必需：大事如跟投資者商談，又或瑣事如選購新口味的曲奇。如果那新品種曲奇價值五元，你盡可放膽試試；相反，如果那是五十元的曲奇，你就要再想想了。」Eva最後語重心長地說：「這一切都取決於個人能承受的最壞打算。如果有人能分擔，會令你感到輕鬆一點。創業路途從來不容易，每個決定都可能影響深遠，當中要承受重大的風險及壓力。我們非常幸運，過程中有彼此。」他倆不只是彼此最強後盾，同時也是未來初創公司的最佳導航，帶領更多改變世界的創業故事。