Billdoor

Unlike you, I care about about the readers, the authors and the translators.

I advocate freemium because it is good for all parties involved. Paywall will drive 80-90% of readers away.

You wrote that you "want to leech as long as possible without paying anything." Which mean you obviously don't care.

If you care about novels, why don't you go to the Report Translation Mistakes like I do and report some typos you found. So that all readers will benefit. I have reported over 200 typos on that Forum, which improve the reading experience for all readers. What have you done to help readers?

good that you report your mistakes and good that you feel your proposals are good, than please go back to your imaginary world and stay there. I just can repeat Carters point, why even advocate something to pay if there is NO fuckin reason to do it. if qidian is planning to do it than you can make your proposals but without even an inkling of incentive you post bullshit on the forum over and over and over and over... same thing with 50 million new posts to the ebook posts... once is enough we now it.... once in this thread is enough... but you have to push this bullshit up and up again that I have the urge to puke every day you push it up again.

So if you want to make some suggestion...send it per mail at qidian and don't bother the rest, I haven't seen one person agreeing or even contributing to your site here in your threads... so please... fuck off, thanks

edit: leeching without paying is hypocrisy? why shouldn't it be? I don't advocate paying or supporting qidian and on the other side want everything free... im pretty clear on my opinion that I want it for free, maybe you should google the meaning of the word before using it

    Billdoor

    leeching without paying is not hypocrisy.

    It's hypocrisy to say that you want free novels. I propose free novels with freemium. You don't like it.

    That is like a person who like free music streaming. Spotify has free music streaming through freemium. That person still don't like it. Hence, that person is a hypocrite.

    p.s.
    If my threads bother you, don't read it.

    Qidian International is going to implement paywall ($0.04 per chapter) in 2018.

    I believe it is a bad idea. I believe readers do have certain influence on the direction of this site.

    If most people are in favor of freemium over paywall, it might have some positive influence in changing their minds.

    yeah ill try to ignore your shit threads, no sources posted for your claims and still calling people out :)

    maybe on rare occasion I come again and shit on your theories that will not favor the free readers. But please come out of your bubble and think you have influence on a multibillion dollar company that already shits on their reader base here by not implementing ANY suggestions or even answering to anything

      Billdoor

      why even advocate something to pay if there is NO fuckin reason to do it. if qidian is planning to do it than you can make your proposals

      Qidian International is going to implement a paywall ($0.04) in 2018.

        ssound5rs I can claim next year will be the end of the world, is it now a fact?
        Please provide us with credible sources for your claims. Only because you write something it won't come true, I have to shatter that dream.

          Billdoor

          I never say I have any influence.

          But all the readers do.

          If 90% vote in favor of freemium and only 10% vote in favor of paywall, Qidian executives will think twice before implementing a paywall.

          Especially since freemium work very well in the West. Thanks to freemium, Spotify has 60 million paying subscribers worldwide. Freemium work very well in the West...Why not try it first instead of paywall? If failed, QI can always revert to paywall.

            Billdoor

            Qidian charges its readers in China. What make you think Qidian won't charge readers in the West?

            As for why the paywall is coming....

            1) Qidian is a profit-driven business. Ads is not enough revenue.
            2) Spirit stones is exactly the same as Qidian Points in China. Users buy Qidian points in China to purchase chapters.

            3) Readers in China has to pay. How would it look if Qidian novels is free in the West but paid in China to paying readers?
            4) CKtalon said that Qidian is committed to free till at least the end of 2017.

              so if you have no real sources and only hypotheses please stop it, its not use to make a paywall with such a low reader base that they have right now.

              So you tell me you make such a huge effort and try to think for solution for a thing that

              isn't sure to happen right now
              will not take you into consideration anyway
              will have a whole department of people drafting ideas about anyway
              has already precedence in china

              man you must have nothing to do...last post here, to much bs here again

                ssound5rs Thanks to freemium, Spotify has 60 million paying subscribers worldwide. Freemium work very well in the West...Why not try it first instead of paywall? If failed, QI can always revert to paywall.

                And thanks to Free service, Facebook makes 27.64 billion USD in 2016

                  ssound5rs
                  Srsly?
                  If it ever becomes paywalled
                  I m gonna either switch to pirate sites or switch hobbies....
                  I have limited pocket money
                  Can't waste it on reading novels mediocre novels.
                  Also 0.04$ per Chapter paywall is just too much. No thx
                  That was worst suggestion ever...

                  The current ads paywall is better.

                    ssound5rs
                    Thing with This kind of stuff is.....it doesn't get immediate returns but little amount every particular interval....
                    Calculate how much earning after 10 years...if QI actually manages to increase users to 10 times what it is right now....

                      Indiboy

                      That's why I wrote that a paywall is a bad idea.

                      Freemium is much better.

                      Freemium will be able to attract 10 times more readers to www.webnovel.com compare to a paywall.

                        ssound5rs I think the current www.webnovel.com ads system was much better than Freemium.

                        QI give us around `+15` free SS each day to skip the ads.
                        What? not much SS to read the bonus chapter?
                        Us, the poor don't mind watching the ads to unlock the chapter
                        and Them, the rich also don't mind to waste their money in exchange for more SS
                        (currently QI doesn't sell SS though)

                          Premium account is unreliable source of income. Why? This is not porn sites nor movie sites, and most people won't be too troubled to backlog a novel just to binge read/marathoning it once it's completely translated.

                            Olivia

                            You can always use the free version. Which is identical to what it is now.

                            And even if you are under 18 and in the EU, you can use Spotify Premium or Crunchyroll Premium or Wattpad Premium as long as your parent pay for it with their credit/debit card.

                            Result so far

                            74% in favor of Freemium (all novels free with ads; $5.99 a month to skip ads, read ahead several chapters of free readers)
                            26% in favor of Paywall ($0.04 per chapter)

                            Having no free option will kill the community, using crunchyroll as an example is terrible since the anime community is far larger and had much longer to grow before corporate companies came into the picture, so the second choice would be only viable one imho.

                            deikatsuo I think the current www.webnovel.com ads system was much better than Freemium.

                            but ads system only generates a lot less revenue....compare to ads system + paid extra to skip ads

                            If readers want more novels translated and authors get paid more, freemium is superior.

                            Look at the New York Times freemium:

                            DIGITAL AD REVENUE: $49 million for the quarter x 4 quarters a year = $196 million a year
                            DIGITAL-ONLY SUBSCRIPTIONS: $86 million for the quarter x 4 quarters a year = $344 million a year

                            Having just ads and no freemium would mean digital revenue for the New York Times would only be $196 million a year instead of $540 mil a year.

                              Ranking from best to worst (looking at a hypothetical free leecher who don't like ads and won't ever pay)

                              1) All Novels Free with no ads

                              2) All Novels Free with ads

                              3) All Novels Free with ads + paid monthly premium to skip ads, read ahead

                              4) Paywall ($0.04 per chapter) after first 100 free chapters

                              5) Subscription paywall only (similar to J-Novel Club $4.95 a month for Club Member and $10.95 for Premium Membership)

                                We live in a world where the authors/translators/publishers have to make money in order to create (translate) more novels for readers to read.

                                I believe freemium is the best choice because it generates a lot of revenue while at the same time allow for free reading for everyone. Paywall is bad because 80-90% of the readers will turn to pirate sites. It's much better to monetize these free readers with ads than losing them to pirate sites.

                                Freemium also allow www.webnovel.com to grow much faster and attract many new users. Paywall will cripple this growth.

                                  For revenue generation with freemium, Qidian International will have

                                  1) Ad Revenue from free users
                                  2) Subscription revenue from Premium members who want to skip ads and read ahead
                                  3) Ebook Revenue sales on Amazon (King of Gods, Demon's Diary ebook are selling very well on Amazon Kindle and generating significant revenue).
                                  4) Maybe merchandise someday down the road similar to what Crunchyroll Merchandise is doing.

                                  So I sincerely hope that Qidian executives don't go with their initial plan of a per chapter paywall for Qidian International like they do for Qidian Chinese site.

                                  Give freemium a chance to succeed. You will be surprised how well Western audience like monthly subscription. I will subscribe and be a paying member to skip ads and to support the site, the author and translator.

                                    You do realize that there are countless aggregators out there, right? People can just choose to go there if things changes, don't forget that QI is a newcomer and I doubt they'd introduce either a paywall or an ad-free plan anytime time soon if they're smart.
                                    We're a leecher community you see (well unless those of us who like to support TLers by donating), so neither of those propositions look appealing as either of them might be the harbinger of the even more dreadful pay-per-chapter system.

                                      please dude, make one post and don't split it into 50 million things, you start again with bullshitting the whole forum with something no one reads... no wonder people can't take you serious anymore... need to find the "unfollow" button for this fuckin thread

                                        Elawn You do realize that there are countless aggregators out there, right? People can just choose to go there if things changes, don't forget that QI is a newcomer and I doubt they'd introduce either a paywall or an ad-free plan anytime time soon if they're smart.
                                        We're a leecher community you see (well unless those of us who like to support TLers by donating), so neither of those propositions look appealing as either of them might be the harbinger of the even more dreadful pay-per-chapter system.

                                        Yup. I realize there are many pirate sites out there. That's why Freemium is superior over the paywall.
                                        Freemium means all the novels on www.webnovel.com will be free so readers have no reason to go to pirate sites.

                                          ssound5rs ''If 90% vote in favor of freemium and only 10% vote in favor of paywall, Qidian executives will think twice before implementing a paywall.''

                                          You need to add a 3rd option 'none' to your little survey so i can vote mate haha

                                            Freemium is a great way to attract users and get a portion of these users to pay for monthly Premium membership. Spotify wouldn't be where it is today if it wasn't freemium from day 1.

                                            Readers who can afford an extra $5.99 a month like myself will support the author, translator, the site by paying for Premium. The extra perks of skipping ads/reading ahead several chapters are also nice and give more incentive for people to support.

                                              Elawn You do realize that there are countless aggregators out there, right? People can just choose to go there if things changes, don't forget that QI is a newcomer and I doubt they'd introduce either a paywall or an ad-free plan anytime time soon if they're smart.
                                              We're a leecher community you see (well unless those of us who like to support TLers by donating), so neither of those propositions look appealing as either of them might be the harbinger of the even more dreadful pay-per-chapter system.

                                              There are some people like yourself who believe a paywall isn't coming in the next few years or if ever.

                                              I guess I'm not that optimistic. I believe it is coming and pretty soon in fact.

                                              Spirit Stones is pretty much a precursor to a paywall. Buy spirit stone for $0.01 each. 4 Spirit Stones per chapter.

                                              Qidian in China use a paywall. What make you think Qidian International will be a special snowflake?

                                              How would they justify to their paying readers in China if the international version is free while readers in China have to pay?

                                              Last but not least, Qidian International never said that it will be FREE FOR a LONG TIME....it would be great publicity to come out and say that but they didn't. Which mean they intend for some kind of paywall some day down the road.

                                              If you like www.webnovel.com to continue to be FREE, you should hope that QI implement FREEMIUM.

                                              ssound5rs The fist option is already happening in most sites- pledge to patreon to read ahead

                                                Hypothetical question:

                                                Netflix charges $9.99 a month for users in the USA.

                                                If Netflix is free in "international markets," how would Netflix justify that to their paying customers in the United States? And how long could that "Netflix International" be free before they start charging like they do in the United States?

                                                Is it realistic to expect "Netflix International" to be free for many years?

                                                Qidian could justify it to their paying readers in China if Qidian International is Freemium since there is a paying element of it. And Qidian authors benefit from this freemium.

                                                  ssound5rs but ads system only generates a lot less revenue....compare to ads system + paid extra to skip ads

                                                  I don't think so.
                                                  QI just need to make its own Ads system.
                                                  and eventually, it will attract the advertisers to advertise their product here
                                                  alt

                                                    ssound5rs

                                                    I'm sorry, but are you dumb?
                                                    If someone is giving you something free just shup up and take it. Stopping being a douch and trying to do something that isn't needed.

                                                    1) Qidian isn't losing money right now, in fact they are making money, or else they wouldn't have done this site and would have made a different kinda of deal with the translator and wouldn't have being so agressive with those others site, no one is losing money here.
                                                    2)To offer paypall they do have to much work to do. First they have to get the translation because if i'm not mistake althought they have the right to the novel they do not have the translation rights. So i doubt that they will just hire all translators and pay them for their translation.
                                                    3) You are trying to compare Netflix with Qidian? C'mon are you dumb? Netflix have to pay for the series and movies that they stream, so it's normal that it's a paid service. But does qidian need to pay for the novels? It's their novel.

                                                    Stop doing thing that are useless.

                                                    and most important.

                                                    4) when they put a pay sistem here i bet you that this site will die. The view rate will drop to the floor and they will lose money, simple because putting a pay system = taxes.
                                                    So it isn't so simple as you think.

                                                    ssound5rs

                                                    Well, let's see if Qidian International will change it or not.

                                                    And, if they change it, it's okay... for me. As long as they do not make it hard for Poor User (Like Me) to read the novel.
                                                    Like, Must pay to be able to read, or have to buy Qidian Point (Or whatever it is)... If so, I really will not agree. *

                                                    Thanks.

                                                    (I hope Qidian made the right decision)

                                                      I’ll only resort to paying if there are no more free alternatives available. I do support those novels that I like though through Patreon. So option 2 for me. And I don’t think that option 1 is viable, customer base is not that much. Qidian should focus more on gaining international readers, retaining its current service and only try paywall when numbers are enough to gain profits.

                                                        Qidian should never compare themselves with Netflix or Crunchyroll, movies, series or animation cost a lot of money in production, story to scriptwriters, screenwriters, directors, actors with many staffs, the whole package for producing movies, series or animation cost a lot of work, money and time and to release in the market cost money and platform, it's very complicated industry while Qidian or Wuxia World is a free platform like Youtube where content writers or creator just use these websites as a platform to earn money and nothing is guranteed whether they will be good or not, so readers are at risk when choosing their specific preference novels like we only have selective numbers of channel which we watch and prefer but that too doesn't gurantee us or the consumers, it's just made up of fanbase and popularity, these type of platform is similar to Amazon, the only difference is that both parties don't cost any money which is writers just writes their story without any production cost and just need a platform to publish and earn money and readers use their time to read and generate number, popularity and fame and also it's like a social mdia where readers spread their work like an advertisement and when writers get more popular they bring more people into the industry and the website earns more, in actual truth we are spreading their good work and gaining them more attention and they should treat readers better and sincere, too much greed is no good for long term plan, you give us something and we give you back more, you can't survive without us but we can, we can just ignore or switch sites and this is not a mandatory.

                                                          [unknown] I don't think so.
                                                          QI just need to make its own Ads system.
                                                          and eventually, it will attract the advertisers to advertise their product here

                                                          Ads-only won't generate as much revenue as Ads plus monthly subscription to skip ads.

                                                          Just ask Crunchyroll to get rid of $6.95 a month Premium that is making Crunchyroll $83 million a year and only use ads and Crunchyroll will laugh you right out of the door.

                                                          Just ask Spotify to get rid of its $9.99 monthly Premium (and therefore 60 million paying subscribers) and only use ads and you will get laugh at.

                                                          Using Facebook is not a good example because the nature of facebook is meant to be free. Can you imagine Facebook charging users to use it?

                                                          Facebook $27.64 billion in ad revenue is not a good example for www.webnovel.com to focus on ads only.

                                                          What media content does Facebook provide?

                                                          www.webnovel.com: novels
                                                          Crunchyroll: anime
                                                          Spotify: music
                                                          New York Times: news articles
                                                          Viki/Dramafever: Korean drama

                                                          All these "contents" cost money. Crunchyroll has to pay anime studio, Spotify has to pay music artist and music labels, NY Times have to pay journalists. Webnovel.com has to pay authors and translators.

                                                          Does Facebook pay its users to create content on Facebook?

                                                          See if you will have any success convincing NY Times, Spotify, Crunchyroll to abandon the Premium part of "Freemium"?

                                                            Everyone will laugh you out of the room if you suggest Spotify to focus on ads system only and get rid of paid subscription to skip ads.

                                                            Spotify 2016 Freemium business model

                                                            Ad-supported Revenue: $308.1 million
                                                            Paid Subscription Revenue: $2.76 billion

                                                            Overall its revenue from its paid subscription model total 2.64 billion euros ($2.76 billion), while ad-supported revenue grew to 295 million euros ($308.1 million). That means that the paid subscription model grew at a rate of 52 percent from the prior year, while ad-supported revenue grew by 50 percent.

                                                              And good luck telling Crunchyroll to use ads system only and get rid of freemium.

                                                              Crunchyroll Surpasses Over One Million Paid Subscribers

                                                              2012: ~125,000 paid subscribers
                                                              2013: ~250,000 paid subscribers
                                                              2014: ~480,000 paid subscribers
                                                              2015: ~740,000 paid subscribers
                                                              2016: 1,000,000 paid subscribers

                                                              Just from subscription alone, CR is making 1 million x $6.95 a month x 12 months = $83.4 million USD

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