The angle of ascent seems interesting. Scribd is YouTube for Docs and they're growing like it.
Every scribd page that I looked at (from Reddit and Digg) could have been done just as well (and in some cases, substantially better) as HTML, using any blogging software (e.g. WordPress, blogger.com) instead of Scribd. The value-added features it offers (basically, a worse-is-better reimplementation of Adobe Acrobat, and collaborative editing) only caused me discomfort.