Huangdi

Huangdi Qidian isn't using an one source of revenue, can't you see they are using Google Ads too? This might already tell you that this problem is already resolved

I said primary source of revenue not only source of revenue. Learn to read!

In addition, I don't see why you are focused on Google Ads???? I never once said google ads.

From a previous post in this thread. Again LEARN TO READ There are several Video Reward Ad providers, not just AdMob (Google Video Reward Ads)
https://blognife.com/2018/04/29/mobile-cpm-rates-in-the-us-2018/

Huangdi This doesn't work well in the western for the piracy sites because it will takes down easily and neither you know how much Qidian International is already earning right now. Also it might not happens at all and if it happens you should still consider this:

You are apparently BLIND as well as illiterate since you haven't noticed the large number of aggregate websites providing webnovel and Qidian stories. Your belief that Piracy is only a Chinese problem is also incredibly naive.

Huangdi Once Qidian become famous enough and still using Google Ads as they main source of revenue, then they should prepare to get a completely downfall like how ZTE is struggling right now.

This is classic
A. ZTE is out of business, it shutdown today. There is no more struggle. Keep up with current events.
B. ZTE ran afoul of the US for selling US Technology to Iran & North Korea. Are you implying that China Literature will suddenly transform into a telecommunications equipment company and start selling US technology to Iran & North Korea????? You are living in a FANTASY WORLD. Get out more. Plus pay attention, ZTE was addressed in my last post. You still can't read can you????
C. When did I ever suggest Google Ads as a "Main Source of Revenue"????, you are blind. I said 'supplemental' revenue and once again I Never said Google Ads.
D. Why are you so focused on Google. Apple also has a mobile platform, a very successful one. In fact, Ad revenue is more lucrative on Apple's IOS platform. I don't understand your fixation on Google???? Apple is also a US company!

Huangdi In the end, isn't Qidian still paying to the webnovels by each chapter? This mean that even if the free spirit stone used for the premium novels, the translator is still getting paid.

Again, you aren't paying any attention. Translators are moving to a royalty system which means they are moving away from a Fixed-rate and thus revenue becomes much more important.

Edit: The high cost of premium will drive many readers to other websites. This has already been mentioned in another post but what costs $1/month in China on Qidian.com to read (remember 94% non-paying readers) costs $20-25/month internationally for the translation. That's for one premium novel.

If you think other websites won't try to take advantage of that high cost and provide pirate chapters you aren't paying attention. It will only become worse the more premium novels there are.

              checkm8

              1.-Ok, tell me the Video Reward Ad providers. I know you will provide every Video Reward Ad providers from U.S which obviously they follow U.S. Laws and this isn't different from AdMob. So, I don't see the difference? You know I'm talking about U.S and not only Google.

              Don't expect other Video Reward Ad providers outside of U.S. to pay the same revenue as in the U.S, it will be lower. NOTE: They won't pay you a penny of Dollar. You focused on dollars 13$ to 16$, so let's focus on U.S. Even the link is about U.S.

              2.I have never seen a Piracy Sites with over thousands of people reading Qidian novels.

              3.COPY AND PASTE: ZTE is part of the Trade War, only naives people think this is just because of illegally exports, also this is happening to Huawei when obviously they have nothing to do with against the U.S security, or you really believe in these spies news? Also read that most big companies prefer long term over short term.

              Also, do you really know what is happening in the Trade War, it even involve companies that did nothing against U.S. You think, Qidian won't be a target of U.S. or any company in the future?

              Please go to Quora english and learn from others.

              3.1.- COPY AND PASTE, about your ''Supplemental'': Look, I think you are too later for the party. This Reward Video was already implemented long time ago just like how I stated above. Are you really reading Qidian webnovel? Keep up to the news.

              4.Please provide about the royalty system.

              So you don't want Ads to be main source. However, as I see, you really want Qidian use more than 50% of ads since there's already rewarded video ads long time ago. Also please, read that gaining 50% of revenues from other services is a dead way, COPY AND PASTE: Even using 50% of Google Ads as another alternative source of revenue, it will still cause a downfall, after all, who will want to buy that much of Spirit Stone when most chapter is free? (Hope you read it again and see that spirit stone is useless)

              1. Alright, I don't think Piracy is about Chinese problem, I believe that RIGHT NOW, there's not a lot of Piracy sites in the west and I can't see thousands of reader went to the Piracy sites. And this is after 4 years of webnovels.

              EDIT: You are still using Chinese Qidian stats to provide how much Qidian international is going to earn? Well, it will be billions since Chinese Qidian is earning too much, even with that 5.8%.

              Don't expect that Piracy sites won't appear, even if Qidian doesn't use spirit stone.

              EDIT2: I already pointed your flaw with examples of other business of depending too much on other companies, but it seems that you try to get further more about ZTE (Iran, North Korea or whatever when I Already told you this is part of the Trade War and not just a common sanction because of illegal). I see, you prepare the war after an enemy shot you.

              ZTE was destroyed so fast. Qidian International might die in less than a day for depending too much the services of others.

              EDIT3: Will reply you tomorrow.

                  Huangdi This is a foolish discussion and I shall end it here. Your hatred for the US makes this whole discussion meaningless.

                  Face the facts, 46.9% of all webnovel.com traffic comes from the US & allies (UK, USA, AUS, CAN). The US alone makes up 31.6% of all webnovel.com traffic. Those 4 countries are in the Top 7 in the forecast for Mobile Ad Spending for 2018.
                  #1 USA
                  #3 UK
                  #6 Austrailia
                  #7 Canada.

                  The other top 7
                  #2 China
                  #4 Japan
                  #5 Germany

                  Basically, your blind hatred for all things the US is foolish.

                  Get over it

                      Poking my head in this conversation because I enjoyed reading up to this point
                      The cost-benifit could most likely be balanced properly by adding an expiration system to locked chapters.
                      At one point I saw a novel with 500+ locked chapters, and to be honest who would pay for such a novel as the cost would start to approach 4-5 novels of equivalent volume at some local bookstores.

                      I would personally have a system where past a certain amount of time a locked chapter gains the "watch add to unlock" option.

                      Lets take "Release That Witch" for example. At the time of writing the number of locked chapters is approaching 100, and this does not look good for anyone looking at the catalog. For a demographic primarily conditioned to free entertainment, mass pay-locked chapters is bad optics. Free alternatives will always exist irrespective of legality and in order to retain your userbase the alternatives can't be so objectively superior to your own model.

                      Lets say I want to create a service to stream TV shows, and for whatever reason i am able to legally present this material for free.
                      Now lets say I chose to make an episode "free" 1 month after it aired.
                      1. I already missed the prime "hype" timeframe.
                      2. I have just alienated my primary drivers of new users "free users"
                      3. Anyone who would pay for TV shows has already done so on other services and they will not overlap with those who are on my service looking for that specific show.

                      To solve this issue I would have to specialize in being the best free service or being the best paid service.
                      From my observations of webnovel they are trying to be both while claiming to be the prior.

                      how can i finish 1 novel if i don't have SS anymore.. for us its 1 peso per SS.. sooo expensive...

                        checkm8
                        Let me say that in the next post, I might say the same thing, but this is to clear what I want to say really. Also, I want to thank Checkm8 for ending this, I want to end this too with this last post.

                        I hate that you called me a Hater of U.S. when I'm stating your flaw of your business. So, I have to respond it quickly. I even say that I apologize to everybody, that this isn't an intent to Hate U.S. but since Google is part of U.S. and seeing what's happening currently to a company, ''It shows the true face of the business''.

                        Also, I never stated the U.S's Allies.

                        I say the flaws since you can see that depending too much on others companies (In this case, most ads are obviously from U.S.) might screw you faster than you think.

                        And why I'm only talking about U.S? Because most people are using ads provider from U.S. Also we were talking about U.S. ads providers.

                        I already say this but I want to say this again, you won't expect Reward Video Ads providers outside of U.S. will pay you dollars. And neither I say that Qidian shouldn't use ads, I say that they shouldn't use TOO MUCH ads from other countries or company. In this case, at first I admit I thought you wanted 100% revenues. But after reread it, you obviously say supplement, but you never say how much supplements and since the Reward Video Ads has been here for a long time (Even there's a thread about the ''Paywall'' in NU that's about the Reward Ads), I thought you wanted to implement it on most of the novels.

                        Also, I have nothing against the ads, won't discuss about it.

                        As I say, I have never stated anything against U.S. neither their allies. But I want to classify that the audience doesn't revolve around U.S.

                        Qidian International is just a new company that just or is about to have 1 year old, so the possibility to gain more audience outside of U.S. is still high.

                        EDIT: Error grammatical.

                            checkm8 i'll just make more dummies to counter their daylight robbery. Translating has been a pretty good gig for working students. It's a nerve wrecking wait for the hiatus during exams. But I still appreciate their effort.

                                joonDOWN they removed it so you'll buy more spirit stones. The root of everything on this thread is Money. It's all about the money X3. 💰💰💰💲💲💲

                                    Huangdi You are obviously naive if you think that there are not a lot of pirate sites in the West, and even more clueless if you think there are not thousand of readers that read Webnovel novels from pirate sites.
                                    If you search a bit more, you will find that the number of users on pirate sites is huge and it's increasing daily...

                                        I too, am a penniless student 😩...hence, I only choose to spend free SS on only one of my favorite novel...and wait for free chapters for other novels(even though the waiting could be so torturing). However to show support, I would say I don't mind watching ads for the latest available free chapters if that helps in QI revenue...in a sense won't QI get more profits from both paying readers and non paying readers like me?

                                        checkm8 nice to see someone else who knows the real facts, I love the other accounts comment about the " great" Tencent who's in fact used some very backdoor tricks even against other Chinese companies ( using faked court doc's in their chat/ message battle a few years ago ) let alone the stuff towards the western companies ,

                                        this is why I've almost given up pointing out that there in house tl'ers/ rep's who comment don't know what they about talking about ad reveranews and how much they, in fact, make and come in
                                        and a "lot of the groups" are in fact just using a 3rd party companys to do the work , I knew this as I checked in to it over a year ago and even spoke to one of the companys

                                            Ok, lets just cut to the chase. No one here is against QI making money. The question is how to make it so that money is not overcharging massivly for content + ensuring survival and growth.

                                            There are Two alternative paying methods thats been mentioned here. First Increased Ad Reventue, Second a Subscription model. Lets face the facts. QI SS is to expensive, some will argue but the point becomes this: I can get WAY MORE content ALMOST ANYWHERE for the same price. QI is going internasjonal, and as such wants to enter the market where online entertainment is already very filled with other altneratives that charge way way less. This is a problem!

                                            I will use myself. With other entertainments etc I do I got a total entertainment budget a month of a about 100usd roughly I think. Now QI gets maybe 10 of those tops, more likely 5. If QI wants a bigger share of those funds, they need to provide a deal that is lucrative enough for me to REMOVE an other form of entertainment. First, watching adds for me does not cost me money directly but it costs a little time, for my "favorite" novels etc thats a steal to me and im happy to watch adds, providing the adds CAN MUTE sound as some are badly done and hurt the ears and you get tired hearing the same one 100 times. This is revenue that I believe is being pointed out for QI, it does not matter about dependancy or anything, its revenue you would get that you DONT today, resulting in higher profit margings, keep last 50-100 Chapters of a series premium. Or create a counter when you have unlocked 100 Premium chapters then you are done paying for that novel but keep the adds only there are loads of ways to make Ads valuable, Im not saying base your operating budget on it, but you can aim for profitmargin from it.

                                            Then you have a subscription model. The key question here is how it would work, and how much should it cost and what content should it give. My suggested model would be this: Pay a monthly subscription of X amount, you can probably make several options here. And in return you get X amount of a new stone each day. We already get power stones and energy stones based on our level on QI to use, why not just add a third that is renewed daily just like these but only works for subscribers, this new stone becomes an alternative way to unlock chapters equall to SS stones except 1 of this new stone unlocks the chapter regardless of its lenght or ss cost. Since it would renvew daily this would mean even on a subscription model SS stones would have value. My baseline would probably be 10 Stones for 10usd a day. 25 for 20.

                                            This would ont be ad dependant, it does not allow unlimited reading, but would take a larger share of alot of free readers pockets. As lets face it, alot of novels are great and we do get hooked, being able to read some of those stabily for a subscription fee? alot of us would providing its not unreasonable.

                                              Zhevons The TLs were probably offered more money. Patreon already use the subscription thing, but they still switched here. A lot of TLs apologized and probably suspended their donation pages.

                                              The Ad revenue thing could be worked out. However that still depends if they actually could pull products through their company. Most of their Ads were all about just local apps so that probably don't pay much. AD agencies might not be comfortable enough to try reading sites and apps. Also there's youtube that has a pot of gold when it came to advertising. Even I won't choose a reading app as an Ad medium.

                                              The important thing for QI heads, is that their reaping profits from spirit stones sales so they won't be changing their buisness tactic anytime soon. Unless someone boycott this addiction mechanic, it will go on.

                                                  bachingchung

                                                  Perhaps. But its not sustainable, thats the problem. The price is to high. People overall are greedy with their money, if they can avoid paying they will. Its the same problem as online piracy and more. But people are willing to pay for good products. LN's here have a few big flaws that over time add up to prevent current system to be able to survive long term.

                                                  Problem nr 1: Price for content compared to other forms of online media.
                                                  Problem nr 2: Being unable to continue to read favorite LN's after going premium and stay up to date.
                                                  Problem nr 3: The amount of "filler" chapters. Chapters where story does not advance or is relevant is high.
                                                  Problem nr 4: They came in with a bad reputation in first place and current practices is not helping.

                                                  So yes, it may be going profit now, but I know that QI is making LESS money from me now then before. ALOT less, by Interest in LN's has gone down significantly and I love reading it. Before I used to be on the site and probably read over 100-200 chapters a day, now its in single digits mostly. This means that even for me, who has a high interest in general for this medium, is getting "turned off" by the site at present time. Alot more people care alot less, this does not build pupulairty, it does the opposite. That is negative growth.

                                                  The key here, is that people like me WANT to continue to read, find the site a great place to do so, but feel we are hit by a unrealistic paywall to continue to do so. Some say its a sellers market, sure. But when your selling something for 20usd (1250 SS) And that gives me perhaps 100 Chapters total. Far less then for me atleast previous daily quota (yes I read alot.) For 10USD I get kindle unlimited, I get netflix, game subscriptions etc that gives me way more CONTENT for the same value. This is why I state SS is to expensive, combine that with daily free SS count being so low. Its impossible for people to get their addicted fed and that leads people to find other addictions instead.

                                                  These reasons stated above just makes it obvious that current models are flawed if growth is the goal. If the goal is to continue to milk current base further It will only last so long. I have stoped picking up novels to read because I know I can not afford to invest the amount required to stay up to date for the amount of novels I want to read. It becomes a matter of price. This is why I advokate for a subscription model. So im asking whats the breaking point. WHAT MONTHLY SUM would QI consider it profitable to allow for this. Its not like it would be hard to add a subscription model where you pay say 20 USD, you get 20 new type stones a day, can read 20 chapters a day. That allows you to roughly follow 2-3 Novels at a time and stay up to date, it feeds an addiction enough that when those novels eventualy end, other novels will be picked up. Add various subscription values and you can tailor it so its possible to get more. The resetting of the stones a day is trivial considering they got power stones and energy stones already.

                                                  So the key point I guess im stating is this. PLEASE OFFER a deal that allows for one to keep up with atleast 3 novels . Considering the amount of novels on the site and its growth in content, there is no way for people today to keep up. Does anyone really believe people will spend 50USD pluss monthly over and over for this ? To finish current series maybe, but you think they will pick up MORE after ? A huge drop off rate there atleast. This is why im saying current model is flawed. I want QI to keep running, I like their release speed, I like that they keep adding more content, I like that it offers something "fresh" but that freshness only lasts so long.

                                                      also once a novel it finished and re-edited ( as to be blunt there are still lots of basic mistakes in the daily release from the tl'ers that use 3rd party companies to do the real work),
                                                      why aren't they releasing finished books this to myself as someone who runs a company in RL can't even understand it as its a total waste of extra free money,
                                                      they make money on the stones, then money on the book,
                                                      I'm mean GT which is now 90% owned by qi has just started it and due to it I've just ordered 3 books from Amazon
                                                      so many ways to make extra money but qi seems to be stuck in a backwards way of thinking or really really doesn't understand the market outside of China

                                                        Zhevons the sales on spirit stones will decline sooner or later, that's for sure. But the readers won't stop. Once you get the feel of that high, you just can't stop.
                                                        You don't have to be a premium user to read other novels. You'll still get your chapters daily. So if you can't handle the spirit stones to unlock chapters, then you could read a hundred novels so you could read a hundred chapters daily.

                                                            bachingchung The readers will go elsewhere. That's the problem. We live in a world of free entertainment. Trying to compete with free means you either have to have a huge quality difference or you have to have a huge quantity difference. Qidian is selling average quality products individually. They can't continue this way; it's just not economically viable.

                                                                Pizz just wait for a month and you could get free epubs. Why squander when you can easily plunder?

                                                                • Pizz replied to this.

                                                                    bachingchung I can already get epubs if I wished too, in fact, I probably know of more ways then most as I've read ln's for over 20 yrs + i can even find older works and releases from group's long gone,
                                                                    but you seem to be missing the point,
                                                                    if you don't, in fact, show some request to the writer by buying their work,
                                                                    why would they bother writing more...
                                                                    in that case, we, in fact, lose in the long run and also the epubs are only £2.00 ish an epub in the UK,
                                                                    which is still cheaper than the stones etc
                                                                    I don't 100% like QI due to the way they work, but should that mean I hate or not respect the writer and the "good" tl'er groups

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