Pottermore
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| Type of business | Privately held company limited company |
|---|---|
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Type of site
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Harry Potter website |
| Available in | English, German, Spanish, French, Italian, Japanese and Only E-Books and Digital Audio books in Portuguese. |
| Headquarters | London, United Kingdom |
| Area served | Worldwide |
| Owner | J. K. Rowling |
| Founder(s) | J. K. Rowling |
| Key people |
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| Website |
www shop |
| Alexa rank | 10,380 |
| Registration | Not required to read content. Required to be sorted. |
| Launched | 31 July 2011 (beta) |
| Current status | Public Access |
Pottermore is the digital publishing, e-commerce, entertainment and news company from J.K. Rowling and is a global digital publisher of Harry Potter and J.K. Rowling’s Wizarding World. It offers news, features, and articles as well as new and previously unreleased writing by J.K. Rowling. The site features Rowling's thoughts, several pages of unpublished text, and a sales resource for e-book and audiobook versions of the seven Harry Potter novels.
On 31 July 2011, registration for the limited beta release began. The limited release allowed the first million fans registered to complete The Magical Quill challenge. The original registration was intended to be October 2011 but was delayed until 14 April 2012. Pottermore was originally launched in partnership with Sony, however in April 2014, it was announced that Pottermore had concluded its relationship with Sony and entered its next developmental phase both creatively and commercially. On 22 September 2015, Pottermore launched a newly designed site containing news, features and articles plus previously unreleased writing by J.K. Rowling and removed some features including the interactive Moment illustrations, House Cup and Sorting ceremony. A newly designed Sorting Ceremony was subsequently launched in January 2016 in which users could reclaim their old house or be re-sorted.
Pottermore was incorporated in April 2008 and was in a developmental stage for two years.The Leaky Cauldron's webmaster, Melissa Anelli, has been involved with the project since October 2009. On 15 June 2011, various Harry Potter fan sites, began releasing coordinates that led to letters on SecretStreetView.com. This website, created by Rowling, used Google Maps to reveal hidden letters that spelled out the title of her secret announcement. The first webpage to announce the project appeared in June 2011. The webpage linked to a YouTube channel that featured a countdown. Pixelated owls gathered on multiple Harry Potter websites that linked to this countdown page. Rowling also revealed some details about the new site in a YouTube video on 23 June 2011.
Pottermore visitors could participate in interactive reading. They would create an account and be given a unique username. They began with Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone and go through the chapters, following Harry and his friends through several Hogwarts journeys. They could collect potion ingredients, books, Chocolate Frog cards, galleons, candy, and more along the way. These various finds would earn users house points after they are sorted by the Sorting Hat. The Sorting Hat would place them in one of the four different houses at Hogwarts. The user was given a special quiz to determine in which house they belong. The four different houses in the Harry Potter universe are Hufflepuff, Gryffindor, Slytherin, and Ravenclaw. Users could visit Diagon Alley, where they could purchase different wizarding supplies for school. They could learn spells, duel with other users, and brew several different potions. Students from different Houses could compete with each other for the House Cup by earning House points through dueling, potion making and collecting objects for the first time.
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Wikipedia