Today, Pearltrees announced a new version of their collaborative library will be released soon. Available on iPad and iPhone for free, the app “transforms organized collections into beautiful illustrated libraries.” The self-proclaimed largest collaboratively library is currently home to 50 million web pages organized into 6 million pearltrees. Pearltrees also had a premium version for $4.99, which they rolled out last October.
The release, which will come soon, will include an overhaul to the design and interface including full screen backgrounds, more realistic pearls, and a suite of customization tools (reusable images, galleries, improved zooming, etc.). Here’s what Pearltrees CEO and Co-Founder Patrice Lamothe said of the release:
With this new release, we focused on the visual potential of Pearltrees to let people dive deeply into their interests and nearly feel them. Now Pearltrees conveys more emotion and more information at a glance as people explore their libraries. It becomes really immersible!”
Since the companies founding in 2009, it has raised over 8 Million euro from investors, and has been seen as one of the more ambitious startups in Paris. Having focused on the US market since day one, the product has seen steady growth, though there has been no news about the adoption of its premium service by users since October. With 2 Million monthly active users, even the feeblest of conversion ratios to premium would result in a fairly stable footing for Pearltrees, so it is interesting to see how they will continue to grow their positioning as a collaborative library,