Ok - anyone on forum or comments will quickly notice a deep split in opinions on the Premium system. Some think its fair, and some don't. Both groups use numbers to back up their claims and... they use different numbers. Both are right! The problem is two different groups of readers.

Group 1 - the "average reader". These people read at average or slow speeds. A single chapter will usually take an hour or more to read and they simply don't have the time to follow more than one or two novels. The free spirit stones are calibrated to just about keep up with this group. For them - the system is fair. And it even encourages the occasional buy of a handful of stones when time allows for a bit more reading than normal.

Group 2 - the "fast reader". These people read at a MUCH faster rate than average. I happen to be one of them and... even the longest chapters on this site rarely take me more than 10 min. The shorter ones I can read even faster! I am perfectly capable of reading $1,000 US (hardcover new-release prices) worth of book in less than a week! This is why my book collection is almost entirely paperback and ebook. And even then I need to focus on library and free novels as much as possible. I'm currently following MORE than 100 web novels and webcomics on more sites than just this one. Nor is my reading speed unique.

Now - Qidan is obviously used to having lots of Group 1 customers, and little-to-none of Group 2. The problem is that much of their current customer base is Group 2 English readers who picked up Chinese translations out of sheer desperation because they ran out of other stuff to read! Their current spirit stone method is simply unreasonable for fast readers, very few of which would be willing to spend $4 a DAY to read everything they want. (I did the math, my current daily chapters would cost 200~400 spirit stones per day)

Interestingly enough... Qidan appears to have the exact same issue on their Chinese site too. Fast readers simply resort to piracy instead of complaining tho. Us English readers haven't done that.... yet. So far we are just complaining. Don't think it matters tho - Qidan doesn't want the money of Group 2 readers.

    I read fast as well, and to make a novel premium is pretty much going to make me drop it. I want to be making alt accounts to read, and I would rather have the side bars filled with ads than pay ~2$ a day (for me).

      I wonder how many of the current reader base are "fast readers". Obviously, Qidan is gearing up to target slow->average readers, so I'm curious how effective their ad campaigns have been. I think a poll of "reading speed" might be quite telling!

      i'd rather to have premium system like spotify tbh, i read double digit novels and i have to drop it when it become premium

      True that. Especially since even if the novels being premiumed helps out the translators, if later on people dont want to read the novel due to being premiumed will do nothing for Qidian and the translators.

      Dragged in by my brother because he wanted the stones to read more... only for me to find out the good stuff required a ridiculous amount of spirit stones to read some fairly short "chapters" that would take up maybe a page and a half in any regular paperback book. If the so called chapters were of a decent length instead of just there short little snippets I wouldn't mind throwing money at the spirit stones but honestly, not wasting my money to pay for a page or two of this stuff. My friggin en210 essay was longer than these "chapters.

      As much as I would LOVE to have some sort of a monthly subscription service, It's just not feasible due to the fact the reader base on this site is still pretty minuscule compared to the MILLIONS of Spotify users. It just wouldn't be a sound business decision at all.

        But the current model is not sound either. The fast readers are the loyal ones. The casual readers will not visit as much so there should maybe be packages aimed at both groups.
        I too like the Spotify model.

        One of the things that boggles my mind is the common argument of anti premium posts, it goes something like this "not everyone can afford the premium so they should scrap it or make it super cheap so everyone can afford it".

        Economics isn't there to please everyone, the idea is to gain maximum amount of profit with minimum resources spent. I'm sure there is someone qidan pays a lot of money to, who calculates this to them, and pleasing the minority of people who read 20+ novels is not their agenda. If 50%+ of the users pay them money they should already be fine.

        I'm going to ask a question, and I know some people will find this offensive or take it as a personal attack.
        Where the frell do you find the time to read 20+ novels?

          jace1884 But it could increase if they employ the same marketing strategy when Spotify was starting out. Free trial baby.

              YaoJian Well technically they do, there are no full premium books here to my knowledge, all of them have certain amount of free chapters. If they created a system where for the first 30 days you can read everything for free, people would just create a new account every 30 days. I'm afraid the limit of where making new accounts wouldn't be worth the effort anymore would also be the point where the free trial would loose it's point.

                You are way to wrong....

                The groups of Qidian are split into 5 groups, 3 main groups and 2 sub-groups.

                1st group: Those who don't shell out money cause most are of average income, college students or teens that don't work, but are willing to watch ads to help support TL's and Qidian. They might occasionally sub to a Patreon

                2nd group; Are the ones that have a stable income and don't worry about the cost of spirit stones as long as they manage it well enough. This group is the group that most likely supported Patreon and put money towards releases of chapters when websites were still doing that.

                3rd group: The group that has to much money to spend and doesn't care about the little incremental amounts of money they'd have to pay per week to read something they enjoy.

                1st sub-group: The occasional reader, a group of readers that reads at a steady rate doesn't read enough to catchup to the new releases and doesn't have to worry about paywalls as the supplied spirit stones will likely be enough to let them read the chapters they want. Even if they met one they'd just set the novel aside or switch to a more lengthy one. This group can fall under any of the 3 main groups as they might watch ads, occasionally buy spirit stones and or buy in lump sums while subbing to Patreon.

                2nd sub- group: The hardcore readers, this group is prone to binging one novel till they are caught up to latest releases and do the same to multiple novels at the same time. This group is likely to run out of supplied spirit stones the fastest. The intake will outclass the 1st groups ability to get around paywalls especially with Premium novels. The 2nd group would even take a hit on the budget trying to sustain this for a lengthy period. Only the 3rd group and most likely the smallest group would be able to do this no problem.

                Your 2 groups are over simplifying the issue to an extreme. An hour to read a chapter?! Who are you talking about a grade schooler? The average reading speed may be 20 to 15 min and above average (dedicated readers) is about 10. A speed reader will basically be a nonentity as a chapter wouldn't take more than 2 to 3 minutes so of course they'd have problems!

                Reading $1k worth of hard cover novels (which are expensive as hell compared to e-books) in a week? Only if you no life it at your reading speed bro! Not to mention the varying price, chapter length and number of chapters in each book.

                The average amount of chapters in a US hard cover novel is about 18 to 30. The number of pages in a chapter is about 10 to 16. In a Chinese novel the average amount of chapters in a novel series is roughly about 1k to 2k. The average amount of pages in a chapter? 18 to 25 depending on your font size. i have mine on small so mine tend to be shorter when viewing the app.

                  SirLobo93 Totally agree with your grouping system, let alone I'm highly dubious of the OP's "average" read speed, one hour for a chapter in this content would be surprising considering the amount of characters in a chapter, even Firefox's "reader" only assumes 13min on the average chapter length and I have to assume it's going off an average that's far more correct then the OP's estimates.

                      SirLobo93 Average reading speed 20-15mins, yea that's on planet Snailzonia, where Snails move their eyeballs at 0.000000005 nano mili-meter per hour.
                      Above average is about 10? and a speed reader is 2-3mins?
                      Just because you're slow, doesn't mean everyone is, reading 1 page in 20mins and calling that average, yea average for someone with brain issues, like an actual brain issue, because that's a fantasy novel, so i guess you'll die before getting past kindergarden, if that's the "Average reading speed"..
                      IF you're going to come up with statistics, at-least be reasonable..

                          Dont just nick pick about the reading speed.

                          The argument is still the same.

                          For me personally.
                          I read a lot faster than ~15min.

                          I follow about 10 novels on QI and other other translation sites. I am a working person and for me, I already spend a lot of time on novels. Too mich time on some days.

                          I cant fathom how ppl can read so many more novels without impacting their work or study.

                          I bought 2x 1500 stone, because I can spend the money and ignore ads.

                          People has to realize that there is no solution that satisfies everyone.

                          You cant expect QI to be a charity.

                          I really wonder which books chapters take 15 min to 1 hour to read

                          The bad thing in my opinion is that chapters are expensive or stone w/e...if a full book will have about 2K chapters...at 12 stone per chapter you will pay a ton of money just for that 1 Book. Even if you buy the 3250(66$ for me) stones which is supposdely the best deal. If my math is right you would pay about 500$. I don’t mind paying but not that much.

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