Massive Toronto startup is now hiring for dozens of new roles after being bought out

Toronto startup Wattpad, a platform popular with tens of millions of writers who use it to publish their content and readers who use it to consume that content, was recently acquired by fellow tech company Naver, and is now expanding operations and hiring for dozens of new jobs in Canada.

The site was initially started by two U of T grads back in 2006, and grew to be valued at a staggering $754 million by the time of its sale to the South Korean corporation earlier this year, a deal that was just finalized this week.

Naver notably also owns Webtoon, another publishing portal that specializes in comics and games, which explains how and why the move came about.

With greater reach and resources, Wattpad will now be hiring approximately 100 people to work out of its Toronto and Halifax offices, with most new roles coming here, where's its maintaining its home base.

Areas of expansion include marketing, content, engineering and data, though there will be all types of different jobs available.

This represents a marked 50 per cent increase from its current staffing numbers, which Wattpad CEO Allen Lau told Techcrunch puts the brand "on another level" as far as jobs and opportunities.

Though Wattpad may not be a household name for some non-bibliophiles, a number of major films have been based on fiction — specifically fan-fiction — from the community, such as Netflix's The Kissing Booth and After.

It has also served as the place where many popular titles have first emerged before being picked up by major publishers and brought to print.