- Edited
bachingchung it's true that most freemium apps' revenue were generated through Ads, but most ads nowadays are fixed on it's pricing and not based on the number of clicks.
That's mostly true except for Reward Video Ads AKA Full-screen video ads. The link I posted above was based on April 2018 pricing. In addition, 57% of webnovel.com traffic comes from 5 English speaking countries US, UK, CA, AUS, and India (4th largest English speaking population). All of which have Reward Video Ad programs.
Just those countries is a pretty large amount of potential Ad-Revenue, It could even be designed further to ensure that SS is still viable revenue model: For example, only allow a certain # of chapters to be unlocked via Video Reward Ads. People who can afford it will still prefer to skip ads.
It's also worth noting that I am talking about 15-30 second non-skippable video ads. In that way, revenue could be maximized. I'm also not talking video ads for only the last two chapters as it was implemented, which would only give you a day of revenue per chapter. I'm talking about all premium chapters.
And now we are back to the OP
It all comes down to maximizing revenue. As it stands now it appears that QI is only focused on SS purchases which ignores a primary segment of webnovel readers. Those who are cash-strapped and can't afford the $50-100/month it costs to read the current amount of premium novels on webnovel. Like college students.
Reward Advertising would tap into that market. The more options a company has to gain revenue the greater a chance of turning a profit. Cash-strapped users aren't going to stop reading Webnovel stories, they just read them elsewhere! This doesn't help the translator or the author OR China Literature.
Reward Video advertising might not bring in as much revenue as a pure spirit stones per chapter per reader but it certainly brings in more revenue then when someone reads the translation on another website.
This also brings us to one of the biggest problems QI has that comes from translations and trying to maximize revenue:
Speed of release
This isn't something that would have been much of a problem in China because authors have a limited release speed of 1-3 chapters per day. There is a natural limiter. Usually, it's one long chapter, two medium length chapters or three short chapters per day at most. WIth translation teams, it's possible to push out 3-4 medium length chapters per day OR MORE. This drives the monthly costs considerably higher than what is found in China! A great example is Immortal Mortal which runs ~$25 a month for 84+ chapters. Vastly more than the original work's monthly cost of 6 CNY (~$1) per month for 60 chapters.
This is especially true now that Patreon model is removed. Previously the increase in translation speed was primarily funded by a limited amount of readers who were paying for advanced chapters. This has now been removed and the costs are being pushed onto readers on webnovel. These costs aren't going to be sustainable for growth. Readers will simply read elsewhere.
Original Works
Of course, once Original English works go premium this will be cheaper for readers for that same reason (although I doubt they will be $1 for 60 chapters when they go premium). A single writer takes time to write, very few of them will be able to exceed even one chapter per day. It will make the cost much more affordable for readers. Of course, this also begs the questions. What about patreon for writers? Will Qidian be as heavy-handed as they are being with translators? I somehow doubt that.
Obviously, the discussion is just about maximizing revenue. Most readers want more chapters and they want them to be released quicker, but once the cost exceeds what they can afford, they just read the chapters elsewhere.