Qidian doesnt want us to read free
N0xiety that doesn't matter, tbh. All they have to do is know how many users are coming from what country and what % of them are paying. Easy data to know. They do not care about leeches because they don't pay anyway so they will focus more on getting them to pay.
MasterRabbink this is easy to estimate by dividing the powerstone votes by 3 and there are thousands of user. Of course, there are multiple accounts but let's assume they all pay.
However, you are underestimating what you call, "common user". One doesn't get exposed by alternative cultures randomly. You usually find it by association with another thing.
Unless tencent pumps out the adaptations, you're not going to get many new people coming to this site (not with many people badmouthing it). If you reduce the engagement rate of the people already here, you are not aiming to make the site grow.
Thus far, the goal of all these changes will stagnate the site, tbh. Which means QI only wants the person who randomly walks into a novel and tries to get people to pay through there, not the person who actively pays to read it.
It's their business I guess
Morning_dew doing the same thing. Super Gene became my focus, so once that is done, i guess i'll go back to another story
Welcome to communist capitalism. Don't like it? This is not a democracy platform. You vote on the next novel, but that is only to give you the illusion that you might have some small say in something. Give in on the small things and stand firm on the large. Webnovel will do what is best for Webnovel.
I mean I see so many people comparing this site to Amazon or other ebook corporate platforms with cost, etc., but you have to realize that's just the American or other country that is not China structure. For a company that wants to go international you might have to face their home turf rules. Not saying that its correct or incorrect, it just is.
This is just my opinion that I've come to after being disappointed or frustrated as well on the high SS costs or the route Webnovel seems to be headed. Maybe my pragmatism is misplaced or I am just jaded. You can yell out "BOYCOTT!" but realistically QI has a strangle hold on most of the good novels and there will always be people who will break down and pay out for that quick fix that the free SS sucks you in with.
Qi doesn't give a buck.
Zero replys on any simmilar topics.
Wabbitz I don't really care for a boycott. I just find this whole thing funny because it's terrible business sense. They are constantly changing the business model without telling people, which is losing consumer trust.
Their business is founded by piracy. All the readers can go back to that if QI is really being crazy. We're not that loyal.
as an American ( and i say that since may of the early comments seem to think we should or would pay more ) i want to say a few things.
First I wouldn't mind paying for good novels - IF a few conditions were met. ONE that the amount i would be charged was disclosed upfront ( before i started reading not changed after i was halfway through novel ). TWO money actually went to support the authors, translators, and maybe adaptations. THREE if WN says they are doing something ( like the 1 chapter a day free release on premiums or free SS ) THEY STICK TO IT. at least for those novels it was effective on.
Personally there is nothing more aggravating then being halfway through a novel and then because you voted for it etc it goes premium and NOW you HAVE to pay or wait or walk away.
I think people forget that as Americans we are used to using our freedom to choose and the power of how we spend our money to affect things. I know that even though i get free SS i still choose to wait for free chapters out of principal ( i currently have over 350 SS ) rather than be FORCED to pay.
IF WN really has taken away the one a day free release chapters of the novels I am reading I will most likely walk away completely from this site. It is part of who I am and how i was raised. We put our money where our mouth is - so to speak. I won't be forced to pay ( even though the SS i have were free - its the principal of the matter of not needing SS and now having to use them ). I will take my money elsewhere.
MaryFord How does it not matter? Then why do you think Steam has regional prices? Do you think they are stupid? Why are they selling the game Post Scriptum for $8.21 here while it costs $29.99 in USA? Gee, i wonder why? I guess such a big and established company like Steam must be run by stupid people huh? Or maybe, just maybe, they sell the game cheaper accordingly to the buying power of the people in the region so that they can make more money from numbers. If they could make the same money while keeping it $29.99, believe me they would. They are most certainly not stupid. Steam is also a company and it's only natural for them to maximize profit...
it was a sad day, i removed all the premium novels from my library :'( Once the other ones go premium then i'll probably remove them as well.
I don't buying some SS a now and again (i have done a few times already), but i definitely will not buy for everything.
N0xiety There is a risk with Dumping and Anti-Dumping law. I don't know that, however TENCENT's AoV had different pricing for example Thailand was more expensive than Indonesia.
Marshala I suggest keeping ONE premium (whatever you think is the best) in your library and dropping the rest, that's what I plan on doing since I don't like the concept of waiting for free chapters.... then come to find out that such don't seem to exist anymore, yeah, I'm definitely sticking with my plans... the SS I get free will be enough to keep reading only one premium, but not more than one.;,;.
DeJeL How about you borrow your grandma cat account. You can read two premium.
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MasterRabbink I believe China is also alot cheaper, like a dozen times or something? What do you think of this?
''Readers are charged 3-5 points for every 1,000 characters (1 point = 1/100 CNY or RMB) depending on your membership status. A typical chapter ranges from 2000 characters to 5000 characters, averaging around 3000.''
Wouldn't this mean that 1 point equals to $0.0015? So a chapter would come to like 2 cents on avarage? Compared to here, which costs about 16 cents on avarage, it is indeed pretty cheap in China. I doubt most people would mind such a pricing.
Then again, there is no translator cost added in the Chinese site, so idk...
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N0xiety This is why it is 'stupid' for them to charge higher for international version. English was the largest number of speaker (counting secondary user) and still growing with the globalization. If they charge too expensive, customer will vote with their wallet.
Yeah i have one left. A few of the others are in various advanced stages. I said somewhere else that for 100GBP I could get 5-7 Hardback book or 7-10 softback book. Obviously there is a translator here too i would expect prices to be higher, but 100GBP will get me enough SS for 650-750 chapters. This is barely 1/3, 1/4 or even 1/6 of a novel in some cases ....
This is actually fine with some free books mixed in, but its not fine when there are 0 chapters from novels i like.
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MasterRabbink I think they are introducing too many novels to translate tbh. If you think about it, the tens of thousands of novels they have in the Chinese Site isn't really costing them anything, much like the originals here, but the novels they bring here has a translator and editor cost that's piling up every month. So it might become a burden if they can't get enough people to pay for their novels and it may not be a good idea to dilute your finite number of readers into more novels. They may be depending on the future growth, but i wouldn't be too sure about that either.
Not everyone likes to read web novels. The biggest reason why people start reading web novels is because they are free. You can't lose anything but some of your time and that is why people tolerate the undesirable sides of web novels. You can't go screaming about free food as long as it's not totally spoiled with maggots crawling over. But when you make it so the price is at the same or even over the level of something like Amazon Kindle, then they also become a competitor. After all, people have a finite time and money to spend on reading. There is no arguing that the published books in Amazon are a step over in quality compared to the most novels here and there is much more to choose from. The only thing the Amazon may be losing in would be the eastern fantasy(wuxia/xianxia) type of novels, but Amazon has plenty of Western Fantasy and some that even incorporate the cultivation style...
Well, i sure hope they can keep going even if i don't agree with the way they do things, as if they pull out from the international scene, we get nothing. As long as they keep in business, where there is a will, there is a way to read...
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N0xiety it doesn't matter because they are already doing segregated pricing. Why do you think the series are separated into premium, adwall, and free? What criteria do you think they can use to determine which series is turned from free to adwall or premium?
Remember:they can count bonus ss, bought ss and users reading series. They can most likely get geographic location as well.
MaryFord Why do i think the novels have segragated pricing? It's for the frog in boiling water effect. As a novel is released, it starts free, then transitions into adwall and finally goes into full premium if it is popular enough. So it's just a way to warm the water slowly while hoping the frogs(readers) get used to it. Some will for sure get used to it or not care as they have heat shields(too much money to care), but most of the frogs who don't have heat shields atleast have a human brain to protect them, so i don't think it will be that effective and they will jump out before the water boils...
Dont fight here just get out from here. Let webnovel die and another translator group take the project
They want you to read for free, it's not like they would made the free stones timed or somethin-......oh wait