Webnovel.com not available in China ... WTF?

ImperfectInfinity · Apr 23, 2018

I have been living in China for the past eight months and every morning when I get on the Shanghai metro I open up my phone and read a few chapters on my way to work. About a week ago I opened up Webnovel.com to find a message saying, "Sorry, our service is not available in your country/region yet." Your service sure was available last month, so why the change? Also, why is it that this website's country of origin cannot host this website? If the servers for the site are in China shouldn't China be able to use the site? The only way I can access any of this site now is if I use my laptop and turn on my VPN to connect to the USA. I have a VPN for my phone too, but it is useless when trying to get on Webnovel.com. Seriously, can anyone explain this to me?

Daoist2017 · Apr 23, 2018

mostly likely reason is: most of the translated novel here is free or soft paywalled, while Chinese version is hard paywalled

Indiboy · Apr 23, 2018

Its common sense brah
Business tactics

N0xiety · Apr 23, 2018

ImperfectInfinity It's either a business tactic or because the banned content in china is still getting released here.

Olivia · Apr 23, 2018

It could be because of the placement of the servers...

LetThereBeMagic · Apr 23, 2018

It could be licensing stipulations and copyright issues. Like, works translated into certain language could only be made available in a certain country. You should check with QI.

Pizza · Apr 23, 2018

Daoist2017 There are a lot pirate sites which post them in China.

ImperfectInfinity · Apr 23, 2018

Indiboy What is the means of profit from this business tactic?
Olivia The servers have always been in China, but this message only recently appeared.
LetThereBeMagic That seems far fetched. I posted on here for the express purpose of seeing what QI has to say about it.
@WEBNOVEL_OFFICIAL do you have any idea why your website is not available in the country it is from? Sorry if I am coming off as snarky, but I really am curious and frustrated about this.

CKtalon · Apr 23, 2018

It's a licensing issue. It was not meant to be available in the past and they fixed it recently.

ImperfectInfinity · Apr 23, 2018

CKtalon Fixed is not the word I would use, but that does answer my question definitively. Thank you for your response.